Abstract
Lake surface water temperature (LSWT) is sensitive to long-term changes in thermal structure of lakes and regional air temperature. In the context of global climate change, recent studies showed a significant warming trend of LSWT based on investigating 291 lakes (71% are large lakes, ≥50 km2 each) globally. However, further efforts are needed to examine variation in LSWT at finer regional spatial and temporal scales. The Tibetan Plateau (TP), known as ‘the Roof of the World’ and ‘Asia’s water towers’, exerts large influences on and is sensitive to regional and even global climates. Aiming to examine detailed changing patterns and potential driven mechanisms for temperature variations of lakes across the TP region, this paper presents the first comprehensive data set of 15-year (2001–2015) nighttime and daytime LSWT for 374 lakes (≥10 km2 each), using MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Land Surface Temperature (LST) products as well as four lake boundary shapefiles (i.e., 2002, 2005, 2009, and 2014) derived from Landsat/CBERS/GaoFen-1 satellite images. The data set itself reveals significant information on LSWT and its changes over the TP and is an indispensable variable for numerous applications related to climate change, water budget analysis (particularly lake evaporation), water storage changes, glacier melting and permafrost degradation, etc.
Highlights
Background & SummaryLakes, alpine lakes, act as sentinels by producing and storing signals that reflect the influence of climate change on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems[1]
Alpine lakes, act as sentinels by producing and storing signals that reflect the influence of climate change on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems[1]
There is no comprehensive data set on Lake surface water temperature (LSWT) across the Tibetan Plateau (TP), especially no open-access data sets derived from satellite image; even the ARC-Lake and GLTC include only large lakes (i.e., ≥ 50 km[2] each) within the TP region
Summary
Alpine lakes, act as sentinels by producing and storing signals that reflect the influence of climate change on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems[1]. Except for ARC-Lake, the abovementioned existing data sets only included nighttime temperatures. This is insufficient to represent large diurnal variations experienced in some lakes, large in small systems[22,23]. There is no comprehensive data set on LSWT across the TP, especially no open-access data sets derived from satellite image; even the ARC-Lake and GLTC include only large lakes (i.e., ≥ 50 km[2] each) within the TP region. This newly generated data set could be valuable in addressing scientific questions associated with regional climate change, water budget analysis ( lake evaporation), surface water storage changes, glacier melting and permafrost degradation, etc
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