Using Field Observations and Satellite Data for the Energy and Water Cycle Study over Heterogeneous Landscape of the Third Pole Region

Abstract:

The exchange of energy and water vapor transportation between land surface and atmosphere over the Tibetan Plateau area play an important role in the Asian monsoon system, which in turn is a major component of both the energy and water cycles of the global climate system. Supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and some international organizations, a Third Pole Environment (TPE) Research Platform (TPEP) is now implementing over the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding region. The background of the establishment of the TPEP, the establishing and monitoring plan of long-term scale (5-10 years) of the TPEP will be shown firstly. Then the preliminary observational analysis results, such as the characteristics of land surface heat fluxes and evapotranspiration (ET) partitioning (diurnal variation, inter-monthly variation and vertical variation etc), the characteristics of atmospheric and soil variables, the structure of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) and the turbulent characteristics have also been shown in this study. The study on the regional distribution of land surface heat fluxes and ET are of paramount importance over heterogeneous landscape of the Tibetan Plateau. The parameterization methods based on satellite data (AVHRR and MODIS) and Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) observations have been proposed and tested for deriving surface reflectance, surface temperature, net radiation flux, soil heat flux, sensible heat flux, latent heat flux and ET over heterogeneous landscape. As cases study, the methods were applied to the whole Tibetan Plateau area. Four scenes of AVHRR data and eight scenes of MODIS data were used in this study. And the results showed that the proposed methodology is reasonable for the deriving surface heat fluxes and ET over heterogeneous landscape.