Coherent lake growth on the central Tibetan Plateau since the 1970s: Characterization and attribution

Lei, Yajie; Yao, Tandong; Bird, Broxton W.; Yang, Kun; Zhai, Jianqing; Sheng, Yongwei

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.01.003

Cited by 210 publications

(197 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

184

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The main driving force behind dramatic lake dynamics over the TP has been under debate recently [3,6,7,[30][31][32][33][34]. One viewpoint supports that increasing glacial meltwater is the primary factor of rapid lake expansions in the Tibetan Plateau as most mountain glaciers showed obvious retreats during the past decades.…”

Section: Discussion On the Potential Cause Of Regional Lake Change Pamentioning

confidence: 99%

Combined ICESat and CryoSat-2 Altimetry for Accessing Water Level Dynamics of Tibetan Lakes over 2003–2014

Song

Sheng

et al. 2015

Water

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Long-term observations of lake water level are essential to our understanding of the evolution of Tibetan lake system. CryoSat-2 radar altimetry data over the Tibetan Plateau (2010Plateau ( -2014) is used to extend lake level measurements from ICESat laser altimetry (2003-2009, P1). This study evaluates the performance of CryoSat-2 data by comparing with gauge-based water levels that are calibrated by ICESat-observed water level time series, and quantifies the uncertainty of water-level change rate estimates from satellite altimetry measurements. We completely investigate the 131 lakes that were observed by both ICESat and CryoSat-2. The mean change rate of water level for all of examined lakes in P2 (0.19 ± 0.03 m·year -1 ) is slightly lower than that (0.21 ± 0.02 m·year -1 ) observed in P1. The extended lake level time series also indicates that, in the past few years, lakes in the Northern Changtang (especially in Hol Xil) showed accelerated growth; and that the extensive lake level rises north to the Gangdise Mountains, during 2003Mountains, during -2009, were found dampened during the CryoSat-2 observation period. The spatio-temporal heterogeneity of precipitation observed from weather stations can be used to partly explain the observed temporal pattern of lake level changes over different sub-zones of the plateau. OPEN ACCESSWater 2015, 7 4686

show abstract

Section: Discussion On the Potential Cause Of Regional Lake Change Pamentioning

confidence: 99%

Combined ICESat and CryoSat-2 Altimetry for Accessing Water Level Dynamics of Tibetan Lakes over 2003–2014

Song

Sheng

et al. 2015

Water

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Unfortunately, density of ground station operated by the Chinese Meteorological Administration (CMA) is low in this part of the Tibetan Plateau, which at the same time highlights the value of earth observations for monitoring land processes. Recent investigations, however, do report on a precipitation increase (Liu et al, 2009;Lei et al, 2013) and an ET pot decrease Yang et al, 2012). Both can contribute to the observed land surface wetting.…”

Section: Warm Season and Monthly Trendsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Yang et al, 2012;Zhang et al, 2009) can cause higher soil moisture contents and also the precipitation increase (e.g. Liu et al, 2009;Lei et al, 2013) explains inevitably part of the land surface wetting. A detailed quantification of each component and its contribution to the total trend is, however, beyond the scope of this study.…”

Section: Warm Season and Monthly Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long term soil moisture mapping over the Tibetan plateau using Special Sensor Microwave/Imager

Velde

Salama

Pellarin

et al. 2014

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. This paper discusses soil moisture retrievals over the Tibetan Plateau from brightness temperature (T B 's) observed by the Special Sensor Microwave Imagers (SSM/I's) during the warm seasons of the period from July 1987 to December 2008. The Fundamental Climate Data Record (FCDR) of F08, F11 and F13 SSM/I satellites by the Precipitation Research Group of Colorado State University is used for this study. A soil moisture retrieval algorithm is developed based on a radiative transfer model that simulates top-of-atmosphere T B 's whereby effects of atmosphere are calculated from near-surface forcings obtained from a bias-corrected dataset. Validation of SSM/I retrievals against in situ measurements for a two-and-half year period (225 matchups) gives a Root Mean Squared Error of 0.046 m 3 m −3 . The agreement between retrievals and Noah simulations from the Global Land Data Assimilation System is investigated to further provide confidence in the reliability of SSM/I retrievals at the Plateau-scale.Normalised soil moisture anomalies (N) are computed on a warm seasonal (May-October) and on a monthly basis to analyse the trends present within the products available from July 1987 to December 2008. The slope of linear regression functions between N and time is used to quantify the trends. Both the warm season and monthly N indicate severe wettings of 0.8 to almost 1.6 decade −1 in the centre of the Plateau. Correlations are found by the trend with elevation for the warm season as a whole and the individual months May, September and October. The observed wetting of the Tibetan Plateau agrees with recent findings on permafrost retreat, precipitation increase and potential evapotranspiration decline.

show abstract

“…For the Himalaya-Hindu Kush region, investigations suggested that a regression of the maximum spring streamflow period in the annual cycle of about 30 days, and annual runoff decreased by about 18 % for the snow-fed basin, whereas it increased by about 33 % for the glacier-fed basin using the Satluj Basin as a typical region (Singh and Bengtsson, 2005). For the Tibetan Plateau, the glacier retreat could lead to an expansion of lakes; e.g., glacier mass loss between 1999 and 2010 contributed to about 11.4-28.7 % of the lake level rise in the three glacier-fed lakes, namely, Siling Co, Nam Co and Pung Co (Lei et al, 2013). Analysis from groundwater storage indicated that the groundwater for the major basins in the Tibetan Plateau increased during 2003-2009 with a trend rate of +1.86 ± 1.69 Gt yr −1 for the Yangtze River Source Region and +1.14 ± 1.39 Gt yr −1 for the Yellow River Source Region (Xiang et al, 2016).…”

Section: Glacio-hydrological Responses To Climate Change: a Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 98%

Review article: Hydrological modeling in glacierized catchments of central Asia – status and challenges

Chen

Fang

et al. 2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Meltwater from glacierized catchments is one of the most important water supplies in central Asia. Therefore, the effects of climate change on glaciers and snow cover will have increasingly significant consequences for runoff. Hydrological modeling has become an indispensable research approach to water resources management in large glacierized river basins, but there is a lack of focus in the modeling of glacial discharge. This paper reviews the status of hydrological modeling in glacierized catchments of central Asia, discussing the limitations of the available models and extrapolating these to future challenges and directions. After reviewing recent efforts, we conclude that the main sources of uncertainty in assessing the regional hydrological impacts of climate change are the unreliable and incomplete data sets and the lack of understanding of the hydrological regimes of glacierized catchments of central Asia. Runoff trends indicate a complex response to changes in climate. For future variation of water resources, it is essential to quantify the responses of hydrologic processes to both climate change and shrinking glaciers in glacierized catchments, and scientific focus should be on reducing uncertainties linked to these processes.

show abstract

Coherent lake growth on the central Tibetan Plateau since the 1970s: Characterization and attribution

Cited by 210 publications

References 35 publications

Combined ICESat and CryoSat-2 Altimetry for Accessing Water Level Dynamics of Tibetan Lakes over 2003–2014

Combined ICESat and CryoSat-2 Altimetry for Accessing Water Level Dynamics of Tibetan Lakes over 2003–2014

Long term soil moisture mapping over the Tibetan plateau using Special Sensor Microwave/Imager

Review article: Hydrological modeling in glacierized catchments of central Asia – status and challenges

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About