Changes in Moisture Flux over the Tibetan Plateau during 1979–2011 and Possible Mechanisms

Gao, Yanhong; Cuo, Lan; Zhang, Yongxin

doi:10.1175/jcli-d-13-00321.1

Cited by 201 publications

(173 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The aridity index (PET/P ) exhibited a slight but insignificant decrease in all basins (markedly declined in basins above Nuxia and Yangcun stations) except for the Brahmaputra River above Tangjia station, which indi- cated that most basins in the Indian-monsoon-dominated regions became wetter over the period of 1982-2011. The increased PET/P in Brahmaputra River basin may be consistent with the drying moisture flux in the southeastern TP, as illustrated by Gao et al (2014). The runoff coefficient (Q/P ) increased slightly in basins above Gongbujiangda and Nuxia stations while decreasing distinctly in basins above Jiayuqiao, Tangji and Yangcun stations.…”

Section: Trends Of Basin-wide Water Budget Components For the Tp Basinssupporting

confidence: 62%

Investigating water budget dynamics in 18 river basins across the Tibetan Plateau through multiple datasets

Liu

Sun

et al. 2018

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The dynamics of basin-scale water budgets over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are not well understood nowadays due to the lack of in situ hydro-climatic observations. In this study, we investigate the seasonal cycles and trends of water budget components (e.g. precipitation P , evapotranspiration ET and runoff Q) in 18 TP river basins during the period 1982-2011 through the use of multi-source datasets (e.g. in situ observations, satellite retrievals, reanalysis outputs and land surface model simulations). A water balancebased two-step procedure, which considers the changes in basin-scale water storage on the annual scale, is also adopted to calculate actual ET. The results indicated that precipitation (mainly snowfall from mid-autumn to next spring), which are mainly concentrated during June-October (varied among different monsoons-impacted basins), was the major contributor to the runoff in TP basins. The P , ET and Q were found to marginally increase in most TP basins during the past 30 years except for the upper Yellow River basin and some sub-basins of Yalong River, which were mainly affected by the weakening east Asian monsoon. Moreover, the aridity index (PET/P ) and runoff coefficient (Q/P ) decreased slightly in most basins, which were in agreement with the warming and moistening climate in the Tibetan Plateau. The results obtained demonstrated the usefulness of integrating multi-source datasets to hydrological applications in the data-sparse regions. More generally, such an approach might offer helpful insights into understanding the water and energy budgets and sustainability of water resource management practices of data-sparse regions in a changing environment.

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Section: Trends Of Basin-wide Water Budget Components For the Tp Basinssupporting

confidence: 62%

Investigating water budget dynamics in 18 river basins across the Tibetan Plateau through multiple datasets

Liu

Sun

et al. 2018

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…As temperatures increase, the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere increases and the temporal and spatial distributions of precipitation change, resulting in large precipitation differences in different regions of the world [1][2][3]. Precipitation patterns are expected to spatially and temporally change around the world due to an increase in the water-holding capacity of the air, which in turn results in the acceleration of the hydrological cycle and affects the spatiotemporal characteristics of precipitation [4][5][6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and Temporal Variability in the Precipitation Concentration in the Upper Reaches of the Hongshui River Basin, Southwestern China

Huang

Wang

Xiao

et al. 2018

Advances in Meteorology

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The statistical characteristics of precipitation play important roles not only in flood and drought risk assessments but also in water resource management. This paper implements a statistical analysis to study the spatial and temporal variability in precipitation in the upper reaches of the Hongshui River basin (UHRB), southwestern China, by analysing time series of daily precipitation from 18 weather stations during the period of 1959 to 2015. To detect precipitation concentrations and the associated patterns, three indices, the precipitation concentration index (PCI), precipitation concentration degree (PCD), and precipitation concentration period (PCP), were used. The relationships between the precipitation concentration indices (PCI, PCD, and PCP) and geographic variables (latitude, longitude, and elevation), large-scale atmospheric circulation indices, and summer monsoon indices were investigated to identify specific dependencies and spatial patterns in the precipitation distribution and concentration. The results show that high PCI values were mainly observed in the northeastern portion of the basin, whereas low PCI values were mainly detected in the southwest. The Mann-Kendall test results demonstrate that the majority of the UHRB is characterized by nonsignificant trends in the PCI, PCD, and PCP from 1959 to 2015. The PCP results reveal that rainfall in the UHRB mainly occurs in summer months, and the rainy season arrives earlier in the eastern UHRB than in the western UHRB. Additionally, the PCD results indicate that the rainfall in the western UHRB is more dispersed throughout the year than that in the eastern UHRB. Compared with other geographical factors, longitude is the most important variable that governs the spatial distribution and variations in annual precipitation and the precipitation concentration indices. Due to a combination of topography, the Indian subtropical high, and monsoon weakening, precipitation may be more concentrated in one period, especially in the eastern part of the basin, which increases the risk of drought.

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“…It also strongly influences the environmental changes in China, Asia, and even the Northern Hemisphere (Guo and Wang 2013;Shen et al 2015;Wu et al 2012;Yang et al 2011). With the global warming, climate and environmental changes of the TP and its substantial effects have attracted a rapidly growing number of interests (Cuo et al 2013;Gao et al 2014;Ma et al 2014a;Song et al 2011;Tian et al 2014;Wu and Zhang 1998;You et al 2013a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting hydrological consistency between soil moisture and precipitation and changes of soil moisture in summer over the Tibetan Plateau

Meng

Luan

et al. 2017

Clim Dyn

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application, large number of missing gaps was shown on the west of the TP, where it is considered that the retrieval algorithms are largely affected by the permafrost covered in this region, leaving the ESA soil moisture product for further improvement. In application, the ESA soil moisture product was used to study the response of surface soil moisture to climate change on the TP. With the rapid warming and the overall wetting of the TP, soil moisture increases on the central of the TP with the increase of precipitation, and decreases in the southeast TP with the precipitation deduction. However, it decreases in the west TP, where it was probably influenced by both the insignificant precipitation changes and the significant increase of evaporation.Keywords Hydrological consistency · ESA soil moisture product · Soil moisture · Precipitation · Trends · Tibetan Plateau Abstract As the first purely multi-decadal satellitebased soil moisture product that spans over 35 years (from November 1978 to December 2013) on a daily basis designed for climate application, the applicability of the European Space Agency (ESA) soil moisture product, including the hydrological consistency between the product and the observed precipitation and the product continuity on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) were investigated. The results show that there is significant degree between the ESA soil moisture product and the observed precipitation. The positive anomaly of the ESA soil moisture product can reflect the occurrences of precipitation, but the precipitation may not definitely lead to soil moisture anomaly, which largely depends on the precipitation amounts. For climate

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Changes in Moisture Flux over the Tibetan Plateau during 1979–2011 and Possible Mechanisms

Cited by 201 publications

References 46 publications

Investigating water budget dynamics in 18 river basins across the Tibetan Plateau through multiple datasets

Investigating water budget dynamics in 18 river basins across the Tibetan Plateau through multiple datasets

Spatial and Temporal Variability in the Precipitation Concentration in the Upper Reaches of the Hongshui River Basin, Southwestern China

Detecting hydrological consistency between soil moisture and precipitation and changes of soil moisture in summer over the Tibetan Plateau

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