China News Service, Beijing, June 28th (Reporter Sun Zifa) Is the evaporation of lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau high? What is the annual evaporation? The latest research completed by Chinese scientists through the new method gives an accurate estimate of the answer-the total annual evaporation of lakes in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is about 51.7 billion tons, equivalent to the water volume of 3570 Hangzhou West Lakes.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences released the above research results on the 28th. Researcher Ma Yaoming of the Institute's Geogas and Climate Change team used the reasonable assumptions of the energy balance of the Tibetan Plateau lakes during the non-icing period, combined with remote sensing data and re-analysis data, to develop the research A reliable method for estimating lake evapotranspiration, and based on this, the total amount of lake evapotranspiration on the Tibetan Plateau is estimated to be about 51.7 billion tons per year, which provides data reference for accurately estimating the lake water resources in the "Asian Water Tower".
This important paper on the research of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has been published in the internationally renowned academic journal "Science Advances" on June 27, Beijing time. Ma Yaoming, the corresponding author of the paper, said that the new method can accurately estimate lake evaporation in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and can be used to estimate lake evaporation in other parts of the world.
A photo of the construction personnel of the meteorological iron tower of the boundary layer of the evaporation surface of the heart island of Namco Lake. (Photo courtesy of the research team of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is called the "Asian Water Tower", and its lake area is nearly 50,000 square kilometers, accounting for more than 50% of the total lake area in China. Scientists have rarely observed lake-gas interactions in high-altitude lakes during the study of lake water cycling in the Tibetan Plateau. The lake evaporation obtained by different research methods in the same lake has obvious differences, and the spatial distribution of the lake evaporation and the total evaporation are still unknown.
The latest research by the research team of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau, Chinese Academy of Sciences, based on the reasonable assumption of the energy balance of the Tibetan Plateau lake during the non-icing period, combined with satellite remote sensing data, Chinese meteorological driving data set data, and observation data of the Tibetan Plateau Observation and Research Platform, obtained 75 large-scale Tibetan Plateau Data on lake icing process, spatial distribution of lake evaporation, and total lake evaporation. By comparing with the measured results, the research results show good consistency.
The first author of the paper, Dr. Wang Binbin, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the comprehensive research results show that the total evaporation of lakes on the Tibetan Plateau is about 51.7 billion tons per year, of which the total annual evaporation of 75 large lakes is about 29.4 billion tons. The study also found that the ice sublimation water in the lake in winter accounts for about 12.3-23.5% of the annual evaporation of the lake, which is an important part of the lake water balance research. The length of the non-icing period and the evaporation of the lake in the southern Tibetan Plateau are significantly higher than those in the northern lake. (Finish)