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Tibetan Plateau's Lake Level and Volume Changes From NASA's ICESat/ICESat‐2 and Landsat Missions
Author(s) -
Zhang Guoqing,
Chen Wenfeng,
Xie Hongjie
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2019gl085032
Subject(s) - plateau (mathematics) , environmental science , satellite , altimeter , elevation (ballistics) , climate change , climatology , water level , remote sensing , physical geography , geology , geography , oceanography , cartography , mathematical analysis , mathematics , geometry , engineering , aerospace engineering
Lake level change is an effective indicator of climate change, because it reflects the dynamic balance of water input and loss. Here we provide a first look of Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite‐2 (ICESat‐2) on the lakes of the Tibetan Plateau. ICESat‐2 doubles the number of lakes observed using predecessor ICESat data. The ICESat/ICESat‐2 altimetry data between 2003 and 2018 are in excellent agreement with in situ measurements from Qinghai Lake ( R 2 = 0.95, root‐mean‐square error = 0.10 m) and with gauge observations made on 3 December 2018 (< 2 cm). The 62 lakes examined show a mean rate of water level change of 0.28 ± 0.03 m/year in 2003–2018, with 58 lakes increasing (mean rate 0.30 ± 0.03 m/year), and 4 lakes decreasing (mean rate −0.12 ± 0.06 m/year). A total change of lake water storage of ~14 Gt/year is estimated. The results suggest that ICESat‐2 data will be an important tool for future lake level change studies.