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Ice processes and surface ablation in a shallow thermokarst lake in the central Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2016

Wenfeng Huang ,
Runling Li ,
Hongwei Han ,
Fujun Niu ,
Qingbai Wu  and
Wenke Wang
Wenfeng Huang*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Subsurface Hydrology and Ecological Effects in Arid Region, Chang’an University, Ministry of Education, Chang’an, China State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China
Runling Li
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
Hongwei Han
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
Fujun Niu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China
Qingbai Wu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China
Wenke Wang
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Subsurface Hydrology and Ecological Effects in Arid Region, Chang’an University, Ministry of Education, Chang’an, China
*
Correspondence: Wenfeng Huang <[email protected]>
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Abstract

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The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) is characterized by a cold climate and a large number of lakes. The long ice season necessitates study of the widespread ice covers in the region. An unprecedented multidisciplinary field campaign was conducted on lake ice processes in the central QTP during the period 2019–13. The study lake generally froze up in late October or early November, and broke up in mid or late April, with a maximum ice thickness of 50–70 cm. The mass balances at both ice surface and bottom were measured continuously. Significant ice surface sublimation/ablation was detected and accounted for up to 40% of the whole ice thickness over the ice season. A simple heat-transfer model was developed for the surface ice loss. The calculated values were in good agreement with the observations. They also indicated that atmospheric conditions, including low air humidity and prevailing strong winds, are the primary drivers of the ice surface sublimation.

Keywords

ice physicslake icesurface melt
Type
Paper
Information
Annals of Glaciology , Volume 57 , Issue 71 , March 2016 , pp. 20 - 28
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2016

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