Abstract:

Plateau inland lakes, as an indicator of their sensitivity to climate change, are often used to analyze the trend of climate change in this region, providing scientific data support for climate prediction and ecological meteorological services. Based on the 1975 Guozhacuo topographic map, TM/ETM+ in 1992 to 2018 and satellite remote sensing image data, the spatial and temporal heterogeneity in recent 40 years and the lake area with climate response were analyzed. The results showed that (1) Guozhacuo area was shrinking in a fluctuant way, by 3.22 km² with the rate of 1.30%, and the shrinking area mainly located in the outlet of Tianshui River and Chongce River; (2) the change of lake area and annual average temperature comprehensively reflected that the climate trend of the region before the 1990s was warm and wet, then changed to warm and dry; (3) the annual average temperature was the main influencing factor for the shrinking of the lake, the hysteresis of the annual average precipitation affected the glacier, and then indirectly influenced the lake area, and the annual average evaporation change responded obviously to the significant variation of the lake area.

Key words: Multi-source Satellite Data, Guozhacuo, Climate Change, Remote Sense, Climate Response, Plateau Lake