J. Mt. Sci. (2018) 15(6): 1229-1240 e-mail: jms@imde.ac.cn http://jms.imde.ac.cn https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-017-4654-y 1229 Abstract: Energy balance at the glacier surface is important for understanding the impacts of climate change on glaciers. Here, we analyzed the characteristics of the glacier surface energy fluxes along with their contributions to glacier melt on Bayi Ice Cap in Qilian Mountains by using a point-scale energy balance model. The half-hourly meteorological data from an automatic weather station (AWS) located on the glacier was used to drive the energy balance model. The model simulated results could accurately represent the mass-balance observations from the stake near the weather station during summer 2016. Our results showed the net radiation (86%) played an important role in the surface energy balance, and the contribution of the turbulent heat fluxes (14%) to the energy budget was relatively less important. A distinct behavior of energy balance, as compared to other continental glaciers in China (e.g., two adjacent glaciers Laohugou No. 12 Glacier and Qiyi Glacier), is the fact that a sustained period of positive turbulent latent flux exists on Bayi Ice Cap during August, causing faster melt rate in the month of August. Our study also presented the effect of frequent summer snowfall in slowing down surface melt by changing the surface albedo during the beginning of the melting season. Keywords: Surface melting; Energy balance; Turbulent latent flux; Summer snowfall; Glacier Introduction Alpine glaciers are the most important source of water for agricultural and industrial uses in mountainous areas and surrounding regions (Immerzeel et al. 2010; Deng and Zhao 2015). These glaciers directly affect annual and diurnal variations of streamflow along with the increase or decrease in glacier mass, which is strongly controlled by precipitation and energy exchanges between atmosphere and glacier surface. Over the past decades, most alpine glaciers in China have experienced shrinkage as a result of climate warming, causing a significant impact on downstream flow (Sakai 2005; Shangguan et al. 2010; Yang et al. 2011, 2016; Zhang et al. 2013; Guo et al. 2015). Knowledge of the glacier Surface energy balance of Bayi Ice Cap in the middle of Qilian Mountains, China QING Wen-wu 1,2* http://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-9092-524X; e-mail: qingww@lzu.edu.cn HAN Chun-tan 2 http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8412-6692; e-mail: hancht@lzb.ac.cn LIU Jun-feng 2 http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4773-0786; e-mail: liujfzyou@lzb.ac.cn * Corresponding author 1 Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China 2 Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China Citation: Qing WW, Han CT, Liu JF (2018) Surface energy balance of Bayi Ice Cap in the middle of Qilian Mountains, China. Journal of Mountain Science 15(6). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-017-4654-y © Science Press, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, CAS and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018 Received: 25 August 2017 Revised: 14 January 2018 Accepted: 07 February 2018