Water-level changes in China's large lakes determined from ICESat/GLAS data

Wang, Xianwei; Gong, Peng; Zhao, Yuanyuan; Xu, Yue; Cheng, Xiao; Niu, Zhenguo; Luo, Zhicai; Huang, Huabing; Sun, Fei; Li, Xiaowen

doi:10.1016/j.rse.2013.01.005

Cited by 179 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…As an alternative, altimetry data for specific lake areas obtained from different satellite campaigns can be used to detect changes in water levels (Urban et al, 2008). Methods to derive time series of lake water levels from the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (ICESat/GLAS) data have been summarized by Phan et al (2012) and Wang et al (2013).…”

Section: Changes In Lake Water Level Of the Tibetan Plateaumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Water-level changes for 26 typical inland lakes on the Tibetan Plateau were examined based on ICESat altimetry data (Zhang et al, 2011b;Song et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2013). Among the 26 lakes, 22 showed an upward tendency and four showed a downward tendency for water level during 2003 to 2009 (Table 3) Tibetan Plateau also showed considerable spatial heterogeneity.…”

Section: Changes In Lake Water Level Of the Tibetan Plateaumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, many lakes (e.g., Aibi Lake, Ayding Lake, and Lop Nur) in Xinjiang in northwest China are shrinking and some have dried up completely (Fan and Li, 1984;Qin, 1999;Bai et al, 2011). Conversely, water levels in a small number of mountain lakes in Xinjiang (Gao and Jia, 2005;Ding et al, 2006;Hu et al, 2007;Bai et al, 2011) and on the Tibetan Plateau (Liu et al, 2009;Zhang et al, 2011a;Wang et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2014a;Yan and Zheng., 2015) have risen in response to increased precipitation and melt glacier (Aizen et al, 1996;Kutuzov and Shahgedanova, 2009). The results of these studies indicate that lakes could be affected by climate change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, most lakes on the Tibetan Plateau are located in sparsely populated areas and data from systematic observations are lacking. Thus, Many scientists obtained changed water level and area of lakes on the Tibetan Plateau by means of remote sensing techniques and field survey (Liu et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2011a;Wang et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2014a;Yan and Zheng, 2015), but there are few researches on the regional temporal differences and spatial heterogeneity of these alpine lakes, and reasons for changes in these lakes were rarely analyzed in detail from water-supplying factors, such as precipitation and glacier meltwater over the past decades.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changes in inland lakes on the Tibetan Plateau over the past 40 years

et al. 2016

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Inland lakes and alpine glaciers are important water resources on the Tibetan Plateau. Understanding their variation is crucial for accurate evaluation and prediction of changes in water supply and for retrieval and analysis of climatic information. Data from previous research on 35 alpine lakes on the Tibetan Plateau were used to investigate changes in lake water level and area. In terms of temporal changes, the area of the 35 alpine lakes could be divided into five groups: rising, falling-rising, rising-falling, fluctuating, and falling. In terms of spatial changes, the area of alpine lakes in the Himalayan Mountains, the Karakoram Mountains, and the Qaidam Basin tended to decrease; the area of lakes in the Naqu region and the Kunlun Mountains increased; and the area of lakes in the Hoh Xil region and Qilian Mountains fluctuated. Changes in lake water level and area were correlated with regional changes in climate. Reasons for changes in these lakes on the Tibetan Plateau were analyzed, including precipitation and evaporation from meteorological data, glacier meltwater from the Chinese glacier inventories. Several key problems, e.g. challenges of monitoring water balance, limitations to glacial area detection, uncertainties in detecting lake water-level variations and variable region boundaries of lake change types on the Tibetan Plateau were discussed. This research has most indicative significance to regional climate change.

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Section: Changes In Lake Water Level Of the Tibetan Plateaumentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Changes In Lake Water Level Of the Tibetan Plateaumentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Changes in inland lakes on the Tibetan Plateau over the past 40 years

et al. 2016

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“…Recent research reveals dramatic changes in water level and mass budgets of Tibetan lakes in the early twenty-first century [1][2][3][4], indicating a sharp alteration existing in mass balance of Asian "water tower" [2,4,5] and an evident signal of climate dynamics [3,[6][7][8][9]. These findings greatly depend on the lake elevation measurements by the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation satellite (ICESat), as long-term in situ hydrological observations at the plateau scale are unavailable due to the remoteness and broad coverage of the Tibetan Plateau (TP).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

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

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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

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Accelerated lake expansion on the Tibetan Plateau in the 2000s: Induced by glacial melting or other processes?

Song

Huang

Richards

et al. 2014

Water Resources Research

230

169

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Alpine lakes on the Tibetan Plateau are minimally disturbed by human activities and are sensitive indicators of climate variability. Accelerated lake expansion in the 2000s has been confirmed by both dramatic lake-area increases (for 312 lakes larger than 10 km 2 ) derived from optical images, and rapid water-level rises (for 117 lakes with water-level data) measured by satellite altimetry. However, the underlying climate causes remain unclear. This paper analyzes the relationship between the water-level changes of lakes on the plateau and the potential driving factors, such as the glacier meltwater supply and a dependency on precipitation and runoff over the whole plateau and in each zone. The results show that the rates of change of non-glacier-fed lakes in the 2000s were as high as those of glacier-fed lakes across the whole plateau and the lake-level changes were closely associated with the lake supply coefficients (the basin/lake area ratio). The lake variations agreed well with the spatial pattern of precipitation changes. However, in different zones, especially at around 33 N north of the plateau, glacier-fed lakes did exhibit faster lake level increases than no-glacier-fed lakes, indicating that the presence of a glacier meltwater supply augmented the precipitation-driven lake expansions in these areas. Despite the absence of quantitative modeling due to limited data availability, this study provides qualitative support that the lake expansions on the Tibetan Plateau in the 2000s have been driven primarily by changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration and not solely by the effect of glacier wastage.

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Water-level changes in China's large lakes determined from ICESat/GLAS data

Cited by 179 publications

References 49 publications

Changes in inland lakes on the Tibetan Plateau over the past 40 years

Changes in inland lakes on the Tibetan Plateau over the past 40 years

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

Accelerated lake expansion on the Tibetan Plateau in the 2000s: Induced by glacial melting or other processes?

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