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Quantify the Evapotranspiration and Evaporation Amounts over Different Landscapes On The Tibetan Plateau
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  • Binbin Wang,
  • Yaoming Ma,
  • Cunbo Han,
  • Weiqiang Ma,
  • Chen Xuelong,
  • Zhongbo Su
Binbin Wang
Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Yaoming Ma
Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Cunbo Han
Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Weiqiang Ma
Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Chen Xuelong
Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Zhongbo Su
Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente
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Abstract

Land evapotranspiration (ET) and lake evaporation are important water budget components, representing the main processes of energy and water exchange between the earth and the atmosphere, and thus can influence the regional-scale hydrological cycles. Based on several long-term and comprehensive land-atmosphere interaction measurements over the Tibetan Plateau, the total amounts of land ET and lake evaporation are estimated by a combination of satellite products and meteorological data, the results show that: (1) the total ET amount has an average annual value of 1.238±0.058×103 km3. The trends of annual ET amount show high variable in spatial distributions, with an increasing trend in the east plateau and a decreasing trend in the west plateau. (2) As for the lake surface, lake ice phenology are clearly presented by MODIS 8-day snow cover products, and they show large spatial variability in the duration of ice-free season. The estimated Bowen ratio and evaporation amounts show acceptable accuracies, and display opposite spatial distributions, with the latter being higher in the southern part than in the northern part. On the TP, a lake with a higher elevation, a smaller area and a larger latitude mostly corresponds to a shorter ice-free season (a lower total net radiation), a larger Bowen ratio and finally a lower evaporation amount. The multi-year average evaporation amounts are listed, with the total water evaporated from lake surface being approximately 29.4±1.2 km3 year-1 for the studied 75 lakes and 51.7±2.1 km3 year-1 for all Plateau lakes included. (3) To further explore the land/lake-atmosphere interaction processes in detail over data-limited regions of the TP and supported by the “Third Pole Environment (TPE) program, 16 comprehensive observation and research stations have been constructed over all kinds of landscapes and in different regions of the TP in 2021. These data have provided significance for future research on plateau- and regional-scale water budget, hydrological cycle and water resources management.