Under global warming, many glaciers worldwide are receding. However, recent studies have suggested the extension of the Karakoram Anomaly, a region of anomalous glacier mass gain, into the western Kunlun and eastern Pamir mountains. However, the eastern limit of this anomaly in the Kunlun Mountains is unclear. This study, using changes in glacier area and surface elevation, estimates the eastern limit of the Kunlun-Pamir-Karakoram anomaly at ~85°E. Over the past 50 years, glaciers west of 85°E in the Kunlun Mountains decreased in area from 8401 to 7945 km2 at a rate of −0.12 ± 0.07% a−1, showed a reduction in the rate of retreat through time and have recently gained mass, with surface elevation changes of 0.15 ± 0.35 m a−1 over the period of 2000–2013. Glaciers east of 85°E have experienced greater rates of area change (−61 ± 12 km2 and −0.43 ± 0.13% a−1) over the past 50 years, accelerated area loss in recent years and elevation change rate of −0.51 ± 0.18 m a−1 between 2000 and 2013. These patterns of elevation and area change are consistent with regional increases in summer temperature in the eastern Kunlun Mountains and slight cooling in the western Kunlun Mountains.

This paper examines the key modern infrastructure of telecommunications in early Republican China, through the eyes of a Japanese, Nakayama Ryûji, who served as a telecommunications adviser to the Chinese government from 1913 to 1928. Nakayama's numerous reports and recommendations to his Chinese employer and frequent confidential dispatches to the Japanese government, when read together, constitute a fascinating prism. They not only reveal problems as well as the potential in China's telecommunications sector, they also highlight Japan's efforts to compete with other foreign actors in China through the provision of Japanese equipment, expertise, and loans. While Nakayama strove to shape China's telecommunications development in ways that would, in his view, benefit both China and Japan, his efforts were often undercut by the aggressive actions of the Japanese government in China, such as the infamous Twenty-One Demands. Though promising at first, Japan's influence on China's modernization in the early Republican era came to be more limited, especially when compared with the final decade of the Qing Dynasty. Ultimately, what can be seen through this Japanese prism confirms that the development of an information infrastructure in modern China, as elsewhere, was as much shaped by technological and economic forces as it was influenced by political and diplomatic factors.

To understand the formation of hard snow in the field and its relationship to the physical parameters of snow surfaces, we carried out snowpack observations at a flat and snow-covered field in Barrow, Alaska. These observations were performed in the middle of winter and included two drifting snow events. After the end of each drifting snow event, the minimum snow surface density increased slightly with time and there was a rapid increase in the minimum snow surface hardness. There was no rain during our observations. Therefore, the strong bonds among the snow surface particles were not due to melting and refreezing; they formed because of hardening during water-vapor transport under a temperature gradient and also by exposure of the inner snow layer through erosion. As a consequence, the snow formed a hard surface following the drifting snow events.

In May of 1990, three research groups from China, the Soviet Union and the United States visited Glacier No. 1 in the Ürümqi river basin, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwestern China, in a cooperative effort to examine differences in mass-balance calculations resulting from sampling and estimation procedures. Three different snow-depth data sets were collected consisting of: (1) high-resolution depth transects covering the glacier, (2) depths taken from the permanent stake network, and (3) an intermediate data set constructed using the stake network and supplementary depth data from locations not covered by the stake network. The glacier was divided into ten elevation zones and the data were registered to a digital elevation model for analysis. Results show that the permanent stake network provides an accurate estimate of total mass balance if certain techniques are used for extrapolation to higher elevations, although estimates of mass balance for particular regions of the glacier are not accurate. Some regions were overestimated while others were underestimated, leading to a good overall estimate. The intermediate-resolution data set provided better within-zone estimates of mass balance, but was less accurate than the stake network for total mass balance.

Research on the sources and spatial variation of the chemical content of snow was conducted in four headwater basins of the eastern Tien Shan, China. The mean SO42- concentration of 16.2 μeq L-1 was three-fold greater than background concentrations from other remote areas of the world. About 80% of the SO42- in snow was deposited in association with Ca2+ and Mg2+ , partially accounting for the relatively high pH of 6.34 in new snow. The variance of individualions in the snowpack ranged from 24 to 46%, measured as the standard deviation divided by the mean and based on 59 samples. Analysis of variance tests showed that solute concentrations varied significantly among sites within an individual basin and that the mean solute concentrations did not vary significantly among basins. Aeolian dust in the snowpack resulted in significant post-depositional alterations in the solute content of snow. Mineral weathering of the dust in the snowpack of the Tien Shan mproduced alkalinity and Ca2+, increasing conductance and buffering H+ .

In the source area of the Ürümqi River, during the glacier ablation season, net radiation is the only heat input to the tundra, averaging 119W m−2 in July and August, more than twice that to the glacier, where additional heat input is contributed by sensible heat. The heat input to the tundra is mostly lost by evaporation, which accounts for 86%, while the input to the glacier is mostly lost by melting. The relatively small heat input to the glacier and the large evaporation rate of its surroundings favour the glacier’s existence. Most precipitation occurs between June and August, accounting for 66% of the annual total. Precipitation increases with altitude in average conditions during the ablation season; the annual precipitation is estimated to be about 650 mm at the mean equilibrium line altitude of 4030 m. This amount is considerably larger than that of the surrounding area. Evaporation is estimated at 270 mm a−1 on the tundra, reducing the runofTin a rather large proportion, and 120 mm a−1 on the glacier. Almost all runoff takes place between May and September, and is mostly concentrated in July and August when the glacier melt is the most intense. When air temperature is high during the ablation period, although the precipitation is less, runoff could peak because of the glacier melt. Based on the measured runoff and estimated regional precipitation and evaporation, the glacier mass balance is calculated and discussed.

Although less than 100 mm of precipitation generally falls during the winter months in the upper Ürümqi River basin, an uneven snowpack of 20 to 100 cm depth is present in early spring. When the surface of this snow cover begins to melt in April, the meltwater is not immediately transformed into streamflow. Several processes are responsible for the five to 15 days of delay in streamflow generation: refreezing in the snow cover itself, creation of a basal ice layer at the snow-soil interface, growth of superimposed ice on the glaciers of the basin, ice formation in stream channels and restoration of high albedo by snowstorms that occur about once a week in spring.