EGU22-1421
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1421
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Significantly increased evapotranspiration reveals accelerated water cycle on the Tibetan Plateau during 1982–2018

Ling Yuan1,2, Xuelong Chen3, Yaoming Ma4,5,6, Deliang Chen7, Zhongbo Su8,9, Dianbin Cao10, Binbin Wang11, Cunbo Han12, Weiqiang Ma13, and Massimo Menenti14,15
Ling Yuan et al.
  • 1Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China (yuanling@itpcas.ac.cn)
  • 2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China(yuanling@itpcas.ac.cn)
  • 3Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China (x.chen@itpcas.ac.cn)
  • 4Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China (ymma@itpcas.ac.cn)
  • 5University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China(ymma@itpcas.ac.cn)
  • 6College of Atmospheric Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China(ymma@itpcas.ac.cn)
  • 7Regional Climate Group, Department of Earth Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden(deliang@gvc.gu.se)
  • 8Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands(z.su@utwente.nl)
  • 9School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Chang’an University, Xi’an, China(z.su@utwente.nl)
  • 10Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijng, China (dianbincao@itpcas.ac.cn)
  • 11Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China (wangbinbin@itpcas.ac.cn)
  • 12Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China (cunbo.han@itpcas.ac.cn)
  • 13Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China (wqma@itpcas.ac.cn)
  • 14Faculty of Civil Engineering and Earth Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands(M.Menenti@tudelft.nl)
  • 15Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China(M.Menenti@tudelft.nl)

Precipitation studies suggest an accelerated water cycle over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) in recent decades. However, the exact changes to evapotranspiration (ETa) over this period remain largely unknown. Multiple ETa products for the TP region report that ETa experienced a significant increasing trend of around 8.4 ± 2.2 mm/10 a during 1982–2018. Here, we quantified and explained the ETa trend using a comprehensive process-based ETa model refined on ground-based observations over the TP. Attribution analysis revealed that a large part of the increasing ETa trend was caused by higher temperature (53.8%) and more soil moisture (23.1%) caused by the melting cryosphere and increased precipitation. The increasing rate of ETa on the TP was approximately twice that of the global ETa, providing strong and independent evidence for an accelerated hydrological cycle. The dominant role of increased temperature in ETa implies a continued acceleration of the water cycle in the future.

How to cite: Yuan, L., Chen, X., Ma, Y., Chen, D., Su, Z., Cao, D., Wang, B., Han, C., Ma, W., and Menenti, M.: Significantly increased evapotranspiration reveals accelerated water cycle on the Tibetan Plateau during 1982–2018, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1421, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1421, 2022.