Sensitivity analysis of variation in water area and climate factors across the Tarim Basin during last ten years based on NDVI

Abstract

This paper attempts to solve the doubt that whether climate factors motion could lead to the variation of water area across the Tarim Basin on decadal scale. NOAA/AVHRR NDVI digital images and monthly climate data of 25 standard stations were used from 1992 to 2001 in Tarim Basin. Relationships between water area and climate factors were analyzed in temporal and geographic variation. The result shows that the general tendency of the variation of water area is not sensitive to climate factors, which confirms that typical arid climate and irrigating agriculture affect the variation of water area across the Tarim Basin on decadal time scale, and short-term climate factors do not affect it significantly.