The Qinghai Tibet Plateau is known as the "Asian water tower", and its runoff, as an important and easily accessible water resource, supports the production and life of billions of people around, and supports the diversity of ecosystems. Accurately estimating the runoff of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau and revealing the variation law of runoff are conducive to water resources management and disaster risk avoidance in the plateau and its surrounding areas. The glacier runoff segmentation data set covers the five river source areas of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau from 1971 to 2015, with a time resolution of year by year, covering the five river source areas of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau (the source of the Yellow River, the source of the Yangtze River, the source of the Lancang River, the source of the Nujiang River, and the source of the Yarlung Zangbo River), and the spatial resolution is the watershed. Based on multi-source remote sensing and measured data, it is simulated using the distributed hydrological model vic-cas coupled with the glacier module, The simulation results are verified with the measured data of the station, and all the data are subject to quality control.
WANG Shijin
Known as the "Asian water tower", the Qinghai Tibet Plateau is the source of many rivers in Southeast Asia. As an important and easily accessible water resource, the runoff provided by it supports the production and life of billions of people around it and the diversity of the ecosystem. The glacier runoff data set in the five river source areas of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau covers the period from 2005 to 2010, with a time resolution of every five years. It covers the source areas of the five major rivers in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau (the source of the Yellow River, the source of the Yangtze River, the source of the Lancang River, the source of the Nujiang River, and the source of the Yarlung Zangbo River). The spatial resolution is 1km. Based on multi-source remote sensing, simulation, statistics, and measured data, GIS methods and ecological economics methods are used, The value of water resources service in the cryosphere in the source area of the river and river is quantified, and all its data are subject to quality control.
WANG Shijin
Glacier is the supply water source of rivers in the western mountainous area, and it is one of the most basic elements for people to survive and develop industry, agriculture and animal husbandry in the western region. Glaciers are not only valuable fresh water resources, but also the source of serious natural disasters in mountainous areas, such as sudden ice lake outburst flood, glacier debris flow and ice avalanche. Glacier hydrological monitoring is the basis for studying the characteristics of glacier melt water, the replenishment of glacier melt water to rivers, the relationship between glacier surface ablation and runoff, the process of ice runoff and confluence, and the calculation and prediction of floods and debris flows induced by glacier and seasonal snow melt water. Glacial hydrology refers to the water and heat conditions of glacial covered basins (i.e. glacial action areas), that is, the water and heat exchange between glaciers and their surrounding environment, the physical process of water accumulation and flow on the surface, inside and bottom of glaciers, the water balance of glaciers, the replenishment of glacial melt water to rivers, and the impact of water bodies in cold regions on climate change. At present, hydrological monitoring stations are mainly established at the outlet of the river basin to carry out field monitoring《 Glacial water resources of China (1991), hydrology of cold regions of China (2000) and glacial Hydrology (2001) summarize the early studies on glacial hydrology. China has carried out glacier hydrological monitoring on more than 20 glaciers in Tianshan, Karakorum, West Kunlun, Qilian, Tanggula, Nianqing Tanggula, gangrigab, Hengduan and Himalayas. This data set is the monthly runoff data of representative glaciers.
YANG Wei, LI Zhongqin, WANG Ninglian, QIN Xiang
Surface soil moisture (SSM) is a crucial parameter for understanding the hydrological process of our earth surface. Passive microwave (PM) technique has long been the primary choice for estimating SSM at satellite remote sensing scales, while on the other hand, the coarse resolution (usually >~10 km) of PM observations hampers its applications at finer scales. Although quantitative studies have been proposed for downscaling satellite PM-based SSM, very few products have been available to public that meet the qualification of 1-km resolution and daily revisit cycles under all-weather conditions. In this study, therefore, we have developed one such SSM product in China with all these characteristics. The product was generated through downscaling of AMSR-E and AMSR-2 based SSM at 36-km, covering all on-orbit time of the two radiometers during 2003-2019. MODIS optical reflectance data and daily thermal infrared land surface temperature (LST) that have been gap-filled for cloudy conditions were the primary data inputs of the downscaling model, in order to achieve the “all-weather” quality for the SSM downscaling outcome. Daily images from this developed SSM product have achieved quasi-complete coverage over the country during April-September. For other months, the national coverage percentage of the developed product is also greatly improved against the original daily PM observations. We evaluated the product against in situ soil moisture measurements from over 2000 professional meteorological and soil moisture observation stations, and found the accuracy of the product is stable for all weathers from clear sky to cloudy conditions, with station averages of the unbiased RMSE ranging from 0.053 vol to 0.056 vol. Moreover, the evaluation results also show that the developed product distinctly outperforms the widely known SMAP-Sentinel (Active-Passive microwave) combined SSM product at 1-km resolution. This indicates potential important benefits that can be brought by our developed product, on improvement of futural investigations related to hydrological processes, agricultural industry, water resource and environment management.
SONG Peilin, ZHANG Yongqiang
Glacier is the supply water source of rivers in the western mountainous area, and it is one of the most basic elements for people to survive and develop industry, agriculture and animal husbandry in the western region. Glaciers are not only valuable fresh water resources, but also the source of serious natural disasters in mountainous areas, such as sudden ice lake outburst flood, glacier debris flow and ice avalanche. Glacier hydrological monitoring is the basis for studying the characteristics of glacier melt water, the replenishment of glacier melt water to rivers, the relationship between glacier surface ablation and runoff, the process of ice runoff and confluence, and the calculation and prediction of floods and debris flows induced by glacier and seasonal snow melt water. Glacial hydrology refers to the water and heat conditions of glacial covered basins (i.e. glacial action areas), that is, the water and heat exchange between glaciers and their surrounding environment, the physical process of water accumulation and flow on the surface, inside and bottom of glaciers, the water balance of glaciers, the replenishment of glacial melt water to rivers, and the impact of water bodies in cold regions on climate change. At present, hydrological monitoring stations are mainly established at the outlet of the river basin to carry out field monitoring《 Glacial water resources of China (1991), hydrology of cold regions of China (2000) and glacial Hydrology (2001) summarize the early studies on glacial hydrology. China has carried out glacier hydrological monitoring on more than 20 glaciers in Tianshan, Karakorum, West Kunlun, Qilian, Tanggula, Nianqing Tanggula, gangrigab, Hengduan and Himalayas. This data set is the monthly runoff data of representative glaciers.
YANG Wei, LI Zhongqin, WANG Ninglian, QIN Xiang
This dataset provides the in-situ lake water parameters of 124 closed lakes with a total lake area of 24,570 km2, occupying 53% of the total lake area of the TP.These in-situ water quality parameters include water temperature, salinity, pH,chlorophyll-a concentration, blue-green algae (BGA) concentration, turbidity, dissolved oxygen (DO), fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM), and water clarity of Secchi Depth (SD).
ZHU Liping
We comprehensively estimated water volume changes for 1132 lakes larger than 1 km2. Overall, the water mass stored in the lakes increased by 169.7±15.1 Gt (3.9±0.4 Gt yr-1) between 1976 and 2019, mainly in the Inner-TP (157.6±11.6 or 3.7±0.3 Gt yr-1). A substantial increase in mass occurred between 1995 and 2019 (214.9±12.7 Gt or 9.0±0.5 Gt yr-1), following a period of decrease (-45.2±8.2 Gt or -2.4±0.4 Gt yr-1) prior to 1995. A slowdown in the rate of water mass increase occurred between 2010 and 2015 (23.1±6.5 Gt or 4.6±1.3 Gt yr-1), followed again by a high value between 2015 and 2019 (65.7±6.7 Gt or 16.4±1.7 Gt yr-1). The increased lake-water mass occurred predominately in glacier-fed lakes (127.1±14.3 Gt) in contrast to non-glacier-fed lakes (42.6±4.9 Gt), and in endorheic lakes (161.9±14.0 Gt) against exorheic lakes (7.8±5.8 Gt) over 1976−2019.
ZHANG Guoqing
The long-term evolution of lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) could be observed from Landsat series of satellite data since the 1970s. However, the seasonal cycles of lakes on the TP have received little attention due to high cloud contamination of the commonly-used optical images. In this study, for the first time, the seasonal cycle of lakes on the TP were detected using Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data with a high repeat cycle. A total of approximately 6000 Level-1 scenes were obtained that covered all large lakes (> 50 km2) in the study area. The images were extracted from stripmap (SM) and interferometric wide swath (IW) modes that had a pixel spacing of 40 m in the range and azimuth directions. The lake boundaries extracted from Sentinel-1 data using the algorithm developed in this study were in good agreement with in-situ measurements of lake shoreline, lake outlines delineated from the corresponding Landsat images in 2015 and lake levels for Qinghai Lake. Upon analysis, it was found that the seasonal cycles of lakes exhibited drastically different patterns across the TP. For example, large size lakes (> 100 km2) reached their peaks in August−September while lakes with areas of 50−100 km2 reached their peaks in early June−July. The peaks of seasonal cycles for endorheic lakes were more pronounced than those for exorheic lakes with flat peaks, and glacier-fed lakes with additional supplies of water exhibited delayed peaks in their seasonal cycles relative to those of non-glacier-fed lakes. Large-scale atmospheric circulation systems, such as the westerlies, Indian summer monsoon, transition in between, and East Asian summer monsoon, were also found to affect the seasonal cycles of lakes. The results of this study suggest that Sentinel-1 SAR data are a powerful tool that can be used to fill gaps in intra-annual lake observations.
ZHANG Yu, ZHANG Guoqing
Lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are an indicator and sentinel of climatic changes. We extended lake area changes on the TP from 2010 to 2021, and provided a long and dense lake observations between the 1970s and 2021. We found that the number of lakes, with area larger than 1 k㎡ , has increased to ~1400 in 2021 from ~1000 in the 1970s. The total area of these lakes decreased between the 1970s and ~1995, and then showed a robust increase, with the exception of a slight decrease in 2015. This expansion of the lakes on the highest plateau in the world is a response to a hydrological cycle intensified by recent climate changes.
ZHANG Guoqing
This data is a 5km monthly hydrological data set, including grid runoff and evaporation (if evaporation is less than 0, it means condensation; if runoff is less than 0, it means precipitation is less than evaporation). This data is a 5km monthly hydrological data set, including grid runoff and evaporation (if evaporation is less than 0, it means condensation; if runoff is less than 0, it means precipitation is less than evaporation).
WANG Lei
There are three types of glacial lakes: supraglacial lakes, lakes attached to the end of the glacier and lakes not attached to the end of the glacier. Based on this classification, the following properties are studied: the variation in the number and area of glacial lakes in different basins in the Third Pole region, the changes in extent in terms of size and area, distance from glaciers, the differences in area changes between lakes with and without the supply of glacial melt water runoff, the characteristics of changes in the glacial lake area with respect to elevation, etc. Data source: Landsat TM/ETM+ 1990, 2000, 2010. The data were visually interpreted, which included checking and editing by comparing the original image with Google Earth images when the area was greater than 0.003 square kilometres. The data were applied to glacial lake changes and glacial lake outburst flood assessments in the Third Pole region. Data type: Vector data. Projected Coordinate System: Albers Conical Equal Area.
ZHANG Guoqing
This is the 1976, 1991, 2000, and 2010 vector data set of glaciers and glacial lakes in the Boqu Basin in Central Himalaya based on Landsat satellite images. The data source is from Landsat remote images. 1976: LM21510411975306AAA05, LM21510401976355AAA04 1991: LT41410401991334XXX02, LT41410411991334XXX02 2000: LE71410402000279SGS00, LE71400412000304SGS00, LE71410402000327EDC00, LE71410412000327EDC00 2010: LT51400412009288KHC00, LT51410402009295KHC00, LT51410412009311KHC00, LT51410402011237KHC00. The boundaries of glaciers and glacial lakes are extracted manually from the various remote sensing images. The extraction error of the boundaries of glaciers and glacial lakes is estimated to be 0.5 pixels. Data file: Glacial_1976: Glacier vector data in 1976 Glacial_1991: Glacier vector data in 1991 Glacial_2000: Glacier vector data in 2000 Glacial_2010: Glacier vector data in 2010 Glacial_Lake_1976: Glacial lake vector data in 1976年 Glacial_Lake_1991: Glacial lake vector data in 1991 Glacial_Lake_2000: Glacial lake vector data in 2000 Glacial_Lake_2010: Glacial lake vector data in 2010 The glacial lake vector data fields include Number, name, latitude and longitude, altitude, area, orientation, type of glacial lake, length, width, and distance from the glacier.
WANG Weicai
This glacial lake inventory is supported by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the United Nations Environment Programme/Regional Resource Centre, Asia and The Pacific (UNEP/RRC-AP). 1. The glacial lake inventory incorporates topographic map data and reflects the status of glacial lakes in the region in 2000. 2. The spatial coverage of the glacial lake inventory is as follows: Pa Chu Sub-basin, Mo Chu Sub-basin, Thim Chu Sub-basin, Pho Chu Sub-basin, Mangde Chu Sub-basin, Chamkhar Chu Sub-basin, Kuri Chu Sub-basin, Dangme Chu Sub-basin, Northern Basin, etc. 3. The glacial lake inventory includes the following data fields: glacial lake code, glacial lake types, glacial lake orientation, glacial lake width, glacial lake area, glacial lake depth, glacial lake length, etc. 4. Data projection: Projection: Polyconic Ellipsoid: Everest (India 1956) Datum: Indian (India, Nepal) False easting: 2,743,196.4 False northing: 914,398.80 Central meridian: 90°0'00'' E Central parallel: 26°0'00'' N Scale factor: 0.998786 For a detailed description of the data, please refer to the data file and report.
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)
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