Water-volume variations of Lake Hulun estimated from serial Jason altimeters and Landsat TM/ETM+ images from 2002 to 2017

ABSTRACT

Lake Hulun is the fifth largest lake in China. The dramatic water-volume variations since the 21th century has aroused concerns from local and transboundary water resource authorities. To track its dynamics during the past sixteen years with no aid of in-situ data, serial Jason altimeters and optical remote sensing images were integrated to reconstruct the time series of the water-volume variations. We developed a workflow consisting of four procedures: 1) Deriving the water-level time series using Jason-1, Jason-2 and Jason-3 after applying a feature-based waveform classification method and a targeted waveform retracking strategy; 2) Extracting the water-area by using Landsat images; 3) Establishing the relationship between water-level and water-area; and 4) Reconstructing the water-volume variation time series by integrating the water-level time series and the relationship derived from 3). We found that Lake Hulun has gone through three stages of changes: 1) Period one (2002–2009), water-level and volume dropped significantly at a rate of −0.40 m yr⁻¹ and −0.73 km³ yr⁻¹, respectively. 2) Period two (2010–2012), the water-level and volume were relatively stable. 3) Period three (2013–2015), the water-level and volume began to rise rapidly at the rates of 1.09 m yr⁻¹ and 1.99 km³ yr⁻¹, respectively. In addition, two significant change years (2007 and 2013) were detected, which corresponded well with extreme climatic conditions. Preliminary analyses indicate that the water-volume variations are closely related to precipitation and temperature anomalies in wet seasons.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the AVISO+ team, USGS and CMDC for providing serial Jason altimetry data, Landsat images, and meteorological data, respectively.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Meteorology Scientific Research Fund in the Public Welfare of China [GYHY201506010]; National High Tech Program [2013AA122804]; The National Key Research and Development Program of China [2016YFC0501101]; Special Fund for Meteorology Scientific Research in Public Welfare [GYHY201506023];