Shifts in water-level variation of Namco in the central Tibetan Plateau from ICESat and CryoSat-2 altimetry and station observations

The dynamics of high-altitude inland lakes in the Tibetan Plateau are sensitive indicators of climate change. Due to the remoteness and hard access, satellite altimetry becomes an effective approach to obtaining large-scale and temporally continuous information of lake-level changes. The CryoSat-2 altimetry is expected to solve the current problem that earlier radar altimeters are only practical for monitoring large water bodies, while ICESat laser altimetry is available only for the period 2003-2009. In this study, the comparison of CryoSat-2 altimetry for Namco with in situ water-level data suggests a high correlation coefficient of 0.71 (P < 0.01), with the mean error of −0.12 m and root-mean-square error of 0.18 m. Further, the combination of ICESat and CryoSat-2 altimetry data and in situ lake-level observations reveals a rapid water-level rise of 0.24 ± 0.04 m/year during 2003-2008 and then a slightly decreasing trend of −0.09 ± 0.04 m/year during 2009-2013. This study suggests that the CryoSat-2 altimetry has the potential of sustaining the fine observations on Tibetan lakes, following the ICESat mission. Besides, the examination of four key climatic variables (temperature, precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, and relative humidity) during 1990-2013 indicates that the wetting climate over Namco Basin stagnated or even reversed around 2006, which may be tightly related to the slowing lake growth.