The degree\|day model is one of the simplest and significant methods to estimate glacier ablation. Degree\|day factor is an important parameter of degree\|day model, showing the glacier\|snow ablation for a unit positive degree\|day. Temporal and spatial variations of a degree\|day factor have great impacts on the accuracy of snow or ice melt modeling．
According to the mass balance observed by stakes on the Glacier No.1 and the weather data of Daxigou Meteorological Station, researchers from State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences,Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute(CAEERI), Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS) analyzed the spatial\|temporal variation characteristics of the degree\|day factors and the influencing factors .The study shows that: 1) temporally, the annual change of degree\|day factors for snow ablation is not obvious, whereas the annual change of degree\|day factors for ice ablation is increasing and the increasing trend in the lower part is more significant than that in the upper of glacier; 2) spatially, the degree\|day factors obviously decrease with attitude；3) the mean summer mass balance variation was -240 mm and -290 mm in the east and west branch, respectively, of the Glacier No. 1 during 2000-2004, as compared with that during 1983-1989, among them -206 mm and -175 mm, respectively, was directly caused by climate change, and -34 mm and -115 mm, respectively, indirectly caused by ice\|surface feature change.
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