位于横断山脉中部的白马雪山是著名的世界遗产地——三江并流中澜沧江与金沙江的分水岭。依据2011年5月对白马雪山冰川环境的考察,发现白马雪山4200m以上部分区域有终年积雪覆盖,根据Ohmura对70条中高纬现代冰川的相关研究所得出的山岳冰川雪线处降水量与气温的关系(此关系也被Hebenstreit用于计算台湾部分偏低纬度的山地现代雪线计算)并结合当地的气候数据,计算出白马雪山现代理论雪线位置大概为4800m,低于山体顶峰海拔高度。且位于4800m以上的部分地形适合冰川发育,依据这些可形成冰川的理论条件,可见白马雪山部分较高地区至今仍有小规模的现代冰川发育。白马雪山现代冰川变化以及终年积雪分布特征反映了一段时间内当地的气候环境变化。
Baimaxueshan located in the middle part of Hengduan range, which is the watershed of the Lancang River and Jinsha River among the three parallel Rivers area that be honored with the famous and the largest area of China World Heritage Sites. We investigated the glacier distribute at Baimaxueshan during May in 2011 and found that some parts of Baimaxueshan above 4 200 m are discovered by snow all the year around, combined with Ohmura's formula ( is also used by Hebenstreit to calculate the modem ELA in parts of the mountains distributed in low latitude in Taiwan) the relationship between the annual precipitation and atmospheric temperature at equi- librium line altitude (ELA), the present theoretical ELA in Baimaxueshan should be 4 800 m, which is lower than the elevation of the main peak. And the topography above 4 800 m is fit for developing glacier, from above we can conclude that the Baimaxueshan develops small extent modem glacier. The feature of the modem glacier r and permanent snow in Baimaxueshan reflect the local climate change during a period of time.