remote sensing Article Assessing Snow Phenology over the Large Part of Eurasia Using Satellite Observations from 2000 to 2016 Yanhua Sun 1, Tingjun Zhang 1,2,*, Yijing Liu 1, Wenyu Zhao 1 and Xiaodong Huang 3 1 Key Laboratory of West China’s Environment (DOE), College of Earth and Environment Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China;
[email protected] (Y.S.);
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[email protected] (W.Z.) 2 University Corporation for Polar Research, Beijing 100875, China 3 School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +86-138-9337-2955 Received: 25 May 2020; Accepted: 23 June 2020; Published: 26 June 2020 Abstract: Snow plays an important role in meteorological, hydrological and ecological processes, and snow phenology variation is critical for improved understanding of climate feedback on snow cover. The main purpose of the study is to explore spatial-temporal changes and variabilities of the extent, timing and duration, as well as phenology of seasonal snow cover across the large part of Eurasia from 2000 through 2016 using a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud-free snow product produced in this study. The results indicate that there are no significant positive or negative interannual trends of snow cover extent (SCE) from 2000 to 2016, but there are large seasonal differences. SCE shows a significant negative trend in spring (p = 0.01) and a positive trend in winter. The stable snow cover areas accounting for 78.8% of the large part of Eurasia, are mainly located north of latitude 45◦ N and in the mountainous areas.