STUDY OF PARAMETERS OF THE ICE-THERMAL REGIME OF LAKE BAIKAL USING REMOTE METHODS

• Published in: Proceedings of the International conference “InterCarto/InterGIS”
• Main Author: E. N. Sutyrina
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Russian
• Published: Laboratory of Complex Mapping, Faculty of Geography, MSU 2017
• Subjects: Lake Baikal; AVHRR radiometer; water surface temperature; ice cover; intra-annual and interannual variability; Geography (General); G1-922; Arctic; Climate change
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.24057/2414-9179-2017-3-23-52-62; https://doaj.org/article/b4158dccb4644e04b1f4797d33e7d946

The surface temperature of the water and the characteristics of the ice cover are important parameters of the state of the ecosystem of the lake and one of the most important indicators that allow us to identify climate change. Dimensions of Lake Baikal with an area of 31.7 thousand sq. kilometers make it reasonable to use the data of satellite remote sensing to study the characteristics of its ice-thermal regime. The purpose of this investigation was to study the features of the spatiotemporal distribution of the parameters of the ice-thermal regime of Lake Baikal using AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) radiometer data for the period of 1998-2016. The paper describes the developed approach to mapping the stages of melting and destruction of the snow-ice cover on Baikal Lake in the spring and the method for mapping the surface temperature of the lake in an ice-free period according to AVHRR data. Samples of compiled schematic maps of the ice situation and of temperature distribution on the lake surface are given. Based on the obtained cartographic materials, the specificity of ice disappearance of the water areas of the Southern, Central and Northern basins of Lake Baikal has been studied. And it was found that the interannual fluctuations in the timing of the ice disappearance on the given water areas are in antiphase with the interannual fluctuations in the value of the Arctic Oscillation Index. Schematic temperature maps were used to study the intra-annual and interannual variability in the temperature distribution of Lake Baikal’s surface and it was revealed that the greatest interannual variability of temperature on its surface is observed in August, which is characterized by the maximum warming of the surface of the water body. Also, the contribution of several significant factors to the formation of temperature fields on the surface of Lake Baikal was estimated.