图书馆知识库

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 similar to 14 Gt/year is estimated. The results suggest that ICESat-2 data will be an important tool for future lake level change studies.