Abstract
Glaciers over the Tibetan Plateau have experienced accelerated depletion in the last few decades due primarily to the global warming. The freshwater drained into brackish lakes is also observed by optical remote sensing and altimetry satellites. However, the actual water storage change is difficult to be quantified since the altimetry or remote sensing only provide data in limited dimensions. The altimetry data give an elevation change of surface while the remote sensing images provide an extent variation in horizontal plane. Hence a data set used to describe the volume change is needed to measure the exact mass transition in a time span. In this study, we utilize GRACE gravimetry mission to quantify the total column mass change in the central Tibetan Plateau, especially focused on the lakes near Tanggula Mountains. By removing these factors, the freshwater storage change of glacier system at study area can be potentially isolated.
Highlights
The Tibetan Plateau (TP) located in western China covers an area of 1.22 million km2, including more than 1000 alpine lakes with a total lake area >40,000 km2
Each of them was observed to be fluctuating independently in earlier years and became interlinked in the mid-2000 (Song et al, 2015). We focused on this major twin lake with a combined surface area greater than 1000 km2, which is large enough to represent major mass contribution in GRACE signal
In 1999, Landsat-7 was launched with the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) similar to TM except for an extra panchromatic band at 15 m resolution
Summary
The Tibetan Plateau (TP) located in western China covers an area of 1.22 million km, including more than 1000 alpine lakes with a total lake area >40,000 km2 It hosts approximate 36,000 glaciers across the region. From remote sensing and in-situ record, the rising rate of temperature over the entire TP is estimated at about 0.03°C per year (Liu et al, 2000; Xu et al, 2009; Tseng et al, 2011) during the past 2–3 decades. This warming procedure has caused the growing water storage in many glacier-fed lakes. The spatial/temporal limitations have made the exact quantification of water storage changes difficult
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