Impacts of the Two Biggest Lakes on Local Temperature and Precipitation in the Yellow River Source Region of the Tibetan Plateau

Wen, Li; Lv, Shan; Li, Zhaoguo; Zhao, Lin; Nagabhatla, Nidhi

doi:10.1155/2015/248031

Cited by 41 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The lake-atmosphere heat exchange and the characteristics of the air-lake boundary layer were systematically observed over Ngoring Lake during the summer open water seasons of 2011, 2016Wen et al, 2015Wen et al, , 2016. The bulk surface temperatures obtained in these observations comprise the primary dataset for verifying the lake model in this study.…”

Section: Lake Temperature Datamentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The plateau contains thousands of lakes, the hydrological regime of which is closely connected to glaciers, permafrost, and influent and effluent (Zheng, 2011;Zhang et al, 2013). The particular climatic environment of the Tibetan Plateau, with low air pressure and intense solar radiation, creates a unique land-atmosphere interaction where the lake system is a crucial component of the regional heat and mass balance Gerken et al, 2013;Li et al, 2015;Wen et al, 2015;Dai et al, 2016). Therefore, changes in the regional water budget of the Tibetan Plateau driven by global warming are of key importance for climatic changes on continental scales.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Li et al (2015) recently studied the characteristics of the energy flux and the radiation balance over Ngoring Lake. With the development of lake schemes and atmospheric models that include the lake surface (Sun et al, 2007), other studies have investigated the effects of the Tibetan Plateau lakes on the local climate Wen et al, 2015;Yang et al, 2015). Nevertheless, compared to other lake-rich regions of the world, like Fennoscandia, northern Canada, or the eastern Siberian tundra, the lakes of the Tibetan Plateau are poorly studied, despite their extraordinary thermal regimes due to strong seasonal and synoptic variations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Seasonal thermal regime and climatic trends in lakes of the Tibetan highlands

Kirillin

Wen

Shatwell

2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The hydrology of the lake-rich Tibetan Plateau is important for the global climate, yet little is known about the thermal regime of Tibetan lakes due to scant data. We (i) investigated the characteristic seasonal temperature patterns and recent trends in the thermal and stratification regimes of lakes on the Tibetan Plateau and (ii) tested the performance of the one-dimensional lake parameterization scheme FLake for the Tibetan lake system. For this purpose, we combined 3 years of in situ lake temperature measurements, several decades of satellite observations, and the global reanalysis data. We chose the two largest freshwater Tibetan lakes, Ngoring and Gyaring, as study sites. The lake model FLake faithfully reproduced the specific features of the high-altitude lakes and was subsequently applied to reconstruct the vertically resolved heat transport in both lakes during the last 4 decades. The model suggested that Ngoring and Gyaring were ice-covered for about 6 months and stratified in summer for about 4 months per year with a short spring overturn and a longer autumn overturn. In summer the surface mixed boundary layer extended to 6-8 m of depth and was about 20 % shallower in the more turbid Gyaring. The thermal regime of the transparent Ngoring responded more strongly to atmospheric forcing than Gyaring, where the higher turbidity damped the response. According to the reanalysis data, air temperatures and humidity have increased, whereas solar radiation has decreased, since the 1970s. Surprisingly, the modeled mean lake temperatures did not change, nor did the phenology of the ice cover or stratification. Lake surface temperatures in summer increased only marginally. The reason is that the increase in air temperature was offset by the decrease in radiation, probably due to increasing humidity. This study demonstrates that air temperature trends are not directly coupled to lake temperatures and underscores the importance of shortwave radiation for the thermal regime of high-altitude lakes.

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Section: Lake Temperature Datamentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Seasonal thermal regime and climatic trends in lakes of the Tibetan highlands

Kirillin

Wen

Shatwell

2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…Studies on the lake effect on the regional water budget suggest that evaporation from one of the largest Tibetan lakes, Nam Co, provides up to 28.4Á31.1 % of the local atmospheric water vapour content during the summer monsoon season , whereas the annual evaporation from Nam Co Lake exceeds annual precipitation and evaporation from the surrounding land (Haginoya et al, 2009). Simulations suggest that the different surface heat and mass budget over lakes could increase the regional precipitation over TP, including snow and rain (Li et al, 2009;Wen et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Airlake boundary layer and performance of a simple lake parameterization scheme over the Tibetan highlands

Wen

Lyu

Kirillin

et al. 2016

Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography

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A B S T R A C TThe Tibetan Plateau (TP) is covered by thousands of lakes which affect the regional and global heat and mass budget with important implications for the current and future climate change. However, the heat and mass budget of TP lakes and the performance of contemporary lake models over TP have not been quantified to date. We utilise 3-yr observations from Ngoring Lake, the largest lake in the Yellow River source region of TP, to investigate the typical properties of the lakeÁair boundary layer and to evaluate the performance of a simplified lake scheme from the Community Land Model version 4.5 (SLCLM) as one of the most popular lake parameterization schemes in atmospheric models. The strong boundary layer instability during the entire open-water period is a distinguishing feature of the airÁlake exchange, similar to the situation over tropical and subtropical lakes, while contrasting to the generally stable atmospheric conditions commonly observed over ice-free temperate and boreal lakes from spring to summer. The rather simple algorithm of SLCLM demonstrated good performance in these conditions. A series of sensitivity simulations with SLCLM revealed strong shortwave solar radiation and cold air temperatures because of high altitude as the primary factors causing the boundary layer instability. The outcomes of the study (1) demonstrate the role of TP lakes as accumulators of shortwave solar radiation releasing the heat into the atmosphere during the entire open-water period; (2) justify the use of simple lake models for the Tibetan highlands, while revealing remarkable uncertainties in the estimations of the latent heat flux; (3) qualify the strong cool-skin effect on the lake surface which results from permanent negative airÁlake temperature difference, and should be taken into account when interpreting remote sensing data from highland areas.

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“…While the first brief reports were recently presented (Wang et al, 2014;Wen et al, 2016) on the mixing conditions and vertical heat transport within the lake water bodies, there are no observational data covering the annual variability or the long-term trends in thermal conditions and stratification in Tibetan lakes. No regular lake monitoring was performed in this area in the past.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rsponse to Referee 2

Kirillin¹

2017

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The hydrology of the lake-rich Tibetan Plateau is important for the global climate, yet little is known about the thermal regime of Tibetan lakes due to scant data. We (i) investigated the characteristic seasonal temperature patterns and recent trends in the thermal and stratification regimes of lakes on the Tibetan Plateau and (ii) tested the performance of the one-dimensional lake parameterization scheme FLake for the Tibetan lake system. For this purpose, we combined 3 years of in situ lake temperature measurements, several decades of satellite observations, and the global reanalysis data. We chose the two largest freshwater Tibetan lakes, Ngoring and Gyaring, as study sites. The lake model FLake faithfully reproduced the specific features of the high-altitude lakes and was subsequently applied to reconstruct the vertically resolved heat transport in both lakes during the last 4 decades. The model suggested that Ngoring and Gyaring were ice-covered for about 6 months and stratified in summer for about 4 months per year with a short spring overturn and a longer autumn overturn. In summer the surface mixed boundary layer extended to 6-8 m of depth and was about 20 % shallower in the more turbid Gyaring. The thermal regime of the transparent Ngoring responded more strongly to atmospheric forcing than Gyaring, where the higher turbidity damped the response. According to the reanalysis data, air temperatures and humidity have increased, whereas solar radiation has decreased, since the 1970s. Surprisingly, the modeled mean lake temperatures did not change, nor did the phenology of the ice cover or stratification. Lake surface temperatures in summer increased only marginally. The reason is that the increase in air temperature was offset by the decrease in radiation, probably due to increasing humidity. This study demonstrates that air temperature trends are not directly coupled to lake temperatures and underscores the importance of shortwave radiation for the thermal regime of high-altitude lakes.

show abstract

Impacts of the Two Biggest Lakes on Local Temperature and Precipitation in the Yellow River Source Region of the Tibetan Plateau

Cited by 41 publications

References 29 publications

Seasonal thermal regime and climatic trends in lakes of the Tibetan highlands

Seasonal thermal regime and climatic trends in lakes of the Tibetan highlands

Airlake boundary layer and performance of a simple lake parameterization scheme over the Tibetan highlands

Rsponse to Referee 2

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