Variations of the glacier mass balance and lake water storage in the Tarim Basin, northwest China, over the period of 2003–2009 estimated by the ICESat-GLAS data

Wang, Ninglian; Wu, Hongbo; Wu, Yuwei; Chen, Anan

Variations of the glacier mass balance and lake water storage in the Tarim Basin, northwest China, over the period of 2003–2009 estimated by the ICESat-GLAS data

2015

Wang, Ninglian | Wu, Hongbo | Wu, Yuwei | Chen, Anan

Accurately estimating the changes in glacier mass balance and water storage in lakes and reservoirs is critical to studying the water cycle in the inland river basin in northwest China. We used high-resolution satellite images to analyze the changes in water surface area of lakes and reservoirs in Tarim Basin, and used the ICESat-GLAS altimeter data to estimate their water level changes and the glacier mass balance change, over the period 2003–2009. The results showed the average glacier thinning in the entire basin was at a rate of 0.34 ± 0.25 m w.e./year equivalent height of water, which means that the glacier mass balance occurred −6.8 ± 1.2 km³ water equivalent over the study period. However, the mean water level of nearby lakes decreased by 0.41 ± 0.2 m even with the influx of glacial melt water, indicating that the lake level declines were caused by the withdrawal of lake water for human activities.

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