Mon Oct 13, F. Flechtner
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Singh, Alka, Behrangi, Ali, Fisher, Joshua B., and Reager, John T., 2018. On the Desiccation of the South Aral Sea Observed from Spaceborne Missions. Remote Sensing, 10(5):793, doi:10.3390/rs10050793.
• from the NASA Astrophysics Data System • by the DOI System •
@ARTICLE{2018RemS...10..793S,
author = {{Singh}, Alka and {Behrangi}, Ali and {Fisher}, Joshua B. and {Reager}, John T.},
title = "{On the Desiccation of the South Aral Sea Observed from Spaceborne Missions}",
journal = {Remote Sensing},
keywords = {lake level, lake volume, evaporation, streamflow, Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), altimetry, Landsat, Aral Sea},
year = 2018,
month = may,
volume = {10},
number = {5},
eid = {793},
pages = {793},
abstract = "{The South Aral Sea has been massively affected by the implementation of
a mega-irrigation project in the region, but ground-based
observations have monitored the Sea poorly. This study is a
comprehensive analysis of the mass balance of the South Aral Sea
and its basin, using multiple instruments from ground and space.
We estimate lake volume, evaporation from the lake, and the Amu
Darya streamflow into the lake using strengths offered by
various remote-sensing data. We also diagnose the attribution
behind the shrinking of the lake and its possible future fate.
Terrestrial water storage (TWS) variations observed by the
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission from the
Aral Sea region can approximate water level of the East Aral Sea
with good accuracy (1.8\% normalized root mean square error
(RMSE), and 0.9 correlation) against altimetry observations.
Evaporation from the lake is back-calculated by integrating
altimetry-based lake volume, in situ streamflow, and Global
Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) precipitation.
Different evapotranspiration (ET) products (Global Land Data
Assimilation System (GLDAS), the Water Gap Hydrological Model
(WGHM)), and Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) Global Evapotranspiration Project (MOD16) significantly
underestimate the evaporation from the lake. However, another
MODIS based Priestley-Taylor Jet Propulsion Laboratory (PT-JPL)
ET estimate shows remarkably high consistency (0.76 correlation)
with our estimate (based on the water-budget equation). Further,
streamflow is approximated by integrating lake volume variation,
PT-JPL ET, and GPCP datasets. In another approach, the
deseasonalized GRACE signal from the Amu Darya basin was also
found to approximate streamflow and predict extreme flow into
the lake by one or two months. They can be used for water
resource management in the Amu Darya delta. The spatiotemporal
pattern in the Amu Darya basin shows that terrestrial water
storage (TWS) in the central region (predominantly in the
primary irrigation belt other than delta) has increased. This
increase can be attributed to enhanced infiltration, as ET and
vegetation index (i.e., normalized difference vegetation index
(NDVI)) from the area has decreased. The additional infiltration
might be an indication of worsening of the canal structures and
leakage in the area. The study shows how altimetry, optical
images, gravimetric and other ancillary observations can
collectively help to study the desiccating Aral Sea and its
basin. A similar method can be used to explore other desiccating
lakes.}",
doi = {10.3390/rs10050793},
adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018RemS...10..793S},
adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}
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