Jianqing Xu, Shumei Yu, Jingshi Liu, Shigenori Haginoya, Yasushi Ishigooka, Tsuneo Kuwagata, Masayuki Hara and Tetsuzo Yasunari
Release Date: January 10, 2009

The Implication of Heat and Water Balance Changes in a Lake Basin on the Tibetan Plateau
Jianqing Xu1), Shumei Yu2), Jingshi Liu2), Shigenori Haginoya3), Yasushi Ishigooka4), Tsuneo Kuwagata4), Masayuki Hara1) and Tetsuzo Yasunari1)5)

1) Frontier Research Center for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
2) Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
3) Meteorological Research Institute
4) National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences
5) Hydrospheric Atmospheric Research Center, Nagoya University

(Received: September 1, 2008)
(Accepted for publication: December 21, 2008)

Abstract:
The numerous lakes found throughout the Tibetan Plateau have a large effect on evaporation from the plateau. We analyzed variation in the water cycle in Yamdrok Yumtso Lake basin under the temperature increase of 1.13°C during the 45 years from 1961-2005. Both vapor pressure and relative humidity increased by approximately 17%, resulting in a 13.7% increase in longwave radiation flux and a smaller daily range of surface air temperature. A 5.7% decrease in sunshine duration caused solar radiation flux to decrease by 3%. Heat and water balances were simulated over land and the lake. The lake covers 10% of the total basin area. Evaporation from the lake was larger than that from land, with lake evaporation making up 26% of the basin total. Evaporation from the lake decreased 7% (May-September) over the study period, and observed small pan evaporation also decreased. This trend was not found in the evaporation from land and from precipitation. With water vapor in the air increasing and evaporation from the ground surface (lake and land) decreasing, the water vapor may have come from areas outside the basin and possibly even beyond the plateau.

[Full Text]

To cite this article:
Jianqing Xu, Shumei Yu, Jingshi Liu, Shigenori Haginoya, Yasushi Ishigooka, Tsuneo Kuwagata, Masayuki Hara and Tetsuzo Yasunari: “The Implication of Heat and Water Balance Changes in a Lake Basin on the Tibetan Plateau”, Hydrological Research Letters, Vol. 3, pp.1-5, (2009) .

doi:10.3178/hrl.3.1
JOI JST.JSTAGE/hrl/3.1
Copyright (c) 2009 Japan Society of Hydrology and Water Resources