Li et al. (2026) Mechanisms and patterns of snow depth and land surface temperature interactions in arid mountains: coupling coordination and lagged responses across Xinjiang, China

Identification

• Journal: ˜The œcryosphere
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-10-06
• Authors: Haixing Li, Xiaolong Bao, Shiqi Lu, Yi Chu, Jun Lu, Mengge Xiao, Xuelei Lei
• DOI: 10.5194/tc-20-5725-2026

Research Groups

• College of Geomatics Science and Technology, Nanjing Tech University
• Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Utilization in Arid Zone, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Short Summary

The study investigates the interaction between snow depth (SD) and land surface temperature (LST) across arid mountains in Xinjiang, China. The authors develop a diagnostic framework combining coupling coordination analysis with time-lagged cross-correlation to assess the strength, quality, and timing of SD-LST interactions.

Objective

• Investigate the mechanisms and patterns of snow depth and land surface temperature interactions in arid mountains.
• Quantify the degree of coupling between SD and LST across different geographical and climatic contexts.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Regional scale (Xinjiang, China)
• Temporal Scale: 20-year period (2000-2020)

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Coupling Coordination Degree Model (CCDM) and time-lagged cross-correlation analysis.
• Data sources: Downscaled snow depth dataset and land surface temperature data from the TRIMS dataset.

Main Results

• The study reveals three principal findings:
  • SD-LST interactions are organized along a hierarchical environmental gradient, with broad climatic setting shaping the north-south potential for coupling, while elevation modulates this pattern in southern ranges.
  • A systematic decoupling emerges between interaction strength and system coordination, suggesting that strong thermal forcing is no longer matched by sustainable snowpack evolution.
  • Response lags exhibit distinct regional signatures, serving as empirical indicators of snowpack buffering capacity and its regional variation.

Contributions

• The study provides a quantitative understanding of snowpack responses to thermal forcing across Central Asia's most critical region.
• The diagnostic framework combining coupling coordination and time-lag analysis offers practical outputs for evaluating snow thermal schemes in land surface models and identifying climate-vulnerable zones.

Funding

• This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42122001) and the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. QYZDY-SSW-DQC001).

Citation

@article{Li2026Mechanisms,
  author = {Li, Haixing and Bao, Xiaolong and Lu, Shiqi and Chu, Yi and Lu, Jun and Xiao, Mengge and Lei, Xuelei},
  title = {Mechanisms and patterns of snow depth and land surface temperature interactions in arid mountains: coupling coordination and lagged responses across Xinjiang, China},
  journal = {˜The œcryosphere},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.5194/tc-20-5725-2026},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-5725-2026}
}