A major proportion of flow in the Tarim River is contributed by its snow- and glacier-fed river catchments situated in the Tianshan Mountain.It is therefore essential to understand the cryosphere dynamics in this area for water resource management.The MODIS MOD10A2 remote-sensing database of snow cover products from March 2000 to December 2012 was selected to analyze the snow cover changes in the Aksu river basin (the snow- and glacier-fed sub-catchment of the Tarim River).Snow cover varied significantly on temporal and spatial scale for the basin.The difference of the maximum and minimum Snow Cover Fraction (SCF) in winter could exceed 70%.On average for annual cycle,Snow Cover Fraction (SCF) reaches its highest value of 53.2% in January,and lowest value of 14.7% in July.Elevation effect results that there is obvious difference of value for Snow Cover Fraction between the range of 3000 m below and 3000 m above.The fluctuation of yearly average snow cover is strong.For the period of 2000-2012,2005 is the year with abundant of snow.And 2007 is the year lack of snow.The increase in snow cover may be the result of an increase in winter precipitation where in that time temperature is below zero.Although the increasing of winter temperature,snow cover of the Aksu River Basin is slightly increasing and more obvious trend was observed for 3000-4000 elevation band which is the main snow cover area of the basin.The strong fluctuation of yearly average snow cover need to be pay attention for it may cause flood and drought.