Water level changes of high altitude lakes in Himalaya–Karakoram from ICESat altimetry

Abstract

Himalaya-Karakoram (H-K) region hosts large number of high altitude lakes but are poorly gauged by in-situ water level monitoring method due to tough terrain conditions and poor accessibility. After the campaigns of ICESat during 2003-2009, now it is possible to achieve lake levels at decimetre accuracy. Therefore, in present study, high altitude lake levels were observed using ICESat/GLAS altimetry in H-K between 2003 and 2009 to generate baseline information. The study reveals that out of 13 lakes, 10 lakes show increasing trend of water levels at different rate (mean rate 0.173 m/y) whereas three lakes unveiled decreasing trend (mean rate −0.056 m/y). Out of five freshwater lakes, four lakes show an increasing trend of their level (mean rate 0.084 m/y) whereas comparatively six salt lakes (out of seven salt lakes) exhibited ∼3 times higher mean rate of lake level increase (0.233 m/y). These observed lake level rise can be attributed to the increased melt runoffs (i.e., seasonal snow and glacier melts) owing to the enhanced mean annual and seasonal air temperature during past decade in northwestern (NW) Himalaya. Further, varied behaviours of lake level rises in inter-and intra-basins suggest that the local climatic fluctuations play prominent role along with regional and global climate in complex geographical system of NW Himalaya.

Carbonate isotopes from high altitude Tso Moriri Lake (NW Himalayas) provide clues to late glacial and Holocene moisture source and atmospheric circulation changes

“…105 m. The lake is fed by a number of small glacier streams with the major streams Gyoma in the north, Phirse Phu stream in the south, and the Korzong Chu in the west. Because the lake presently has no permanent outlet the lake level is governed by the balance between evaporation and inflow from precipitation, as well as long and short-term changes in melt water discharge from snow and glaciers during the summer months (De Terra and Hutchinson, 1934;Srivastava et al, 2013). Modern investigations using ICESat/GLAS (The Ice Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite carrying the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System) reveal that Tso Moriri Lake level was falling at the rate of 0.119 m/y during 2003-2009 AD (Srivastava et al, 2013) due to higher evaporation (Lesher, 2011).…”

“…Because the lake presently has no permanent outlet the lake level is governed by the balance between evaporation and inflow from precipitation, as well as long and short-term changes in melt water discharge from snow and glaciers during the summer months (De Terra and Hutchinson, 1934;Srivastava et al, 2013). Modern investigations using ICESat/GLAS (The Ice Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite carrying the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System) reveal that Tso Moriri Lake level was falling at the rate of 0.119 m/y during 2003-2009 AD (Srivastava et al, 2013) due to higher evaporation (Lesher, 2011). A large alluvial fan to the south limits the lake level (Leipe et al, 2014b), and a former outlet in the south has been reported by Gujja et al (2003) and Panigrahy et al (2012).…”

Self-affinity and surface-area-dependent fluctuations of lake-level time series

“…Estimates of spectral coherence between Great Lakes and Pacific Decadal Oscillation show significant coherence at interdecadal frequencies and with Trans-Niño Index at frequencies of ð3-7Þ 21 yr 21 [Ghanbari and Bravo, 2008]. These and many other studies show links between water level and climate variability or climate change, see for example: Mercier et al [2002]; Wilcox et al [2007]; Cr etaux and Birkett [2006]; Gibson et al [2006]; Wang et al [2010]; and Srivastava et al [2013]. However, other studies show that while water levels and climate cycles may be correlated, it is difficult to either isolate the effect of individual forcings or attribute water-level trends to that forcing [Pasquini et al, 2008;Sellinger et al, 2008].…”

History and Applications of Space-Borne Lidars

“…Furthermore, ICESat obtained high-accuracy elevation data in a consistent, Earth-centered reference frame, That, it is suitable for establishing global geodetic control (Zwally et al, 2002). Various products of the GLAS instrument were used in different applications including cloud-top heights (Dessler et al, 2006), forest stand characteristics (Ranson et al, 2004), forest canopy height (Wang et al, 2014), estimating Siberian timber volume (Nelson et al, 2009), elevation changes of Tibetan lakes (Abshire et al, 2005), and water level changes of high altitude lakes in Himalaya-Karakoram (Srivastava et al, 2013), detection Polar "diamond dust"…”