MEASURING THE LAKE LEVEL EVOLUTION IN THE QINGHAI-TIBET PLATEAU WITH RADAR ALTIMETERS

摘要

The lake-level change is one of the important indicators for the water balance of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). In this region lake level is directly affected by the temperature both upstream and in the surroundings. In addition, other factors like: precipitation, evaporation, glaciers, perennial snow cover and permafrost do have an impact as well.rnWith global climate warming, it is becoming more necessary to strengthen the monitoring of lake levels. Although there are thousands of lakes in the QTP, most of them are in remote areas with difficult accessibility. Therefore, it is difficult to set up hydrological stations for the monitoring. Remote sensing offers a convenient solution for continuous monitoring over that regionrnThis paper presents the comparison of the lake level evolutions measured with radar altimeters since 2010 and the followed methodology to process and cross calibrate the data. A description of the improvements achieved with the incorporation of the new high resolution altimeters, the Chinese first altimeter and the Ka band altimeter will also be incorporated.