Mechanism and effects of warming water in ice-covered Ngoring Lake of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Abstract

Abstract. Ngoring Lake is the largest freshwater lake in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (TP). The lake water temperature was observed to be generally rising during the ice-covered period from November 2015 to April 2016. This phenomenon appeared in the whole water column, with slowing in deep water and accelerating in shallow water before ice melting. The process is different from low-altitude boreal lakes. There are few studies on its mechanism and effects on lake-atmosphere interaction. Based on the observation data of Ngoring Lake Station, ERA5-Land data, MODIS surface temperature data, and precipitation data of Maduo Station of China Meteorological Administration, the characteristics of water temperature rise in the ice-covered Ngoring Lake are analyzed. LAKE2.3 model, which is currently little used for TP lakes, is applied to explore the influence of local climate characteristics and the main physical parameters on the radiation transfer in water body. The study questions are the continuous rise of water temperature in the ice-covered period, and the effects of different water temperature profiles prior to ice breakup on the lake heat storage per unit area and sensible and latent heat release. The results show that LAKE2.3 represents well the temperature evolution and thermal stratification in Ngoring Lake, especially in the ice-covered period. The strong downward short-wave radiation plays a dominant role, low precipitation gives positive feedback, and smaller downward long-wave radiation, lower temperature and larger wind speed give negative feedback. Increase of ice albedo and ice extinction coefficient reduces the heating rate of water temperature before reaching the maximum density temperature, and increases the maximum temperature that can be reached during ice-covered period, while increasing the water extinction coefficient has little influence on water temperature. The lake temperature in Ngoring Lake rising during the ice-covered period, and the temperature at the upper layer of lake body was higher than that at the maximum density temperature before ice breaking. Compared with the characteristics of three typical ice-covered periods which the lake temperature remained fixed in each layer, and the lake temperature was less than or equal to the maximum density temperature, the difference of heat release after ice breaking lasted for 59–97 days. The higher the lake temperature before breakup, the more heat is stored in the lake, and the more sensible heat and latent heat is released when the ice melts completely and the faster is the heat release.

Seasonal ice-covered lake surface likely caused the spatial heterogeneity of aeolian sediment grain-size in the source region of Yellow River, northeastern Tibetan Plateau, China

“…Ngoring Lake is ice-covered from late November or early December to late April with a maximum ice thickness over 0.8 m (Luo et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2022). From the middle of January to early March, the ice thickness of the lake is over 0.6 m (Wang et al, 2022). The freezing onset in the Gyaring Lake occurs in the end of October, which is slightly earlier than that in Ngoring Lake.…”

“…Seasonal freeze-thaw cycles and ice-covered waterbodies (e.g., lake and river) play important role in material migration and energy exchange in HRYR (Kirillin et al, 2021;Yu C. et al, 2022). Ngoring Lake is ice-covered from late November or early December to late April with a maximum ice thickness over 0.8 m (Luo et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2022). From the middle of January to early March, the ice thickness of the lake is over 0.6 m (Wang et al, 2022).…”

An effect of a snow cover on solar heating and melting of lake or sea ice

“…As a result, it is sufficient to consider the transfer of direct solar radiation, the intensity and spectral composition of which change with the zenith angle of the Sun. Minor atmospheric precipitation and strong winds (Wang et al, 2022) result in the absence of snow cover on the ice surface. This leads to a significant solar heating of the ice and water in the lake.…”

“…Therefore, the analysis of ice melting on the lake surface should refer to the conditions of the first half of April, when the day-averaged solar illumination of the lake practically does not change and the air temperature is the only changing parameter of the problem. According to (Wang et al, 2022), the wind speed in the first 2 weeks of April is equal to 4 m/s and not changed during the day. The corresponding value of the heat transfer coefficient is about h 20 W/(m 2 K) (Defraeye et al, 2011;Mirsadeghi et al, 2013).…”