Climatogenic Dynamics of Lakes in the Russian Part of Daur Steppe According to Earth's Remote Sensing Data

Abstract

The use of Earth's remote sensing methods is one of the effective methods of monitoring. It allows estimating the areas of the water line of lakes and their quantity over vast and inaccessible territories. An analysis of the dynamics of basinal lakes in the Daurian steppe Russian part from 1989 to 2016, performed using a modified normalized differential water index MNDWI, showed that the maximum number of lakes was observed in 1992 (1245 pcs.) with a total area of water surfaces amounted to 1088 km 2. Both indicators reached the lowest point in 2016, while the total area of lakes decreased by more than 70% towards the maximum and amounted to 319.4 km 2 , and their number had fallen by 10 times. The revealed changes resulted from the climatic factors influence. This proves by significant correlations between the characteristics of lakes and meteorological parameters.