How much water vapour does the Tibetan Plateau release into the atmosphere?
<p>Water vapour flux, expressed as evapotranspiration (ET), is critical for understanding the earth climate system and the complex heat–water exchange mechanisms between the land surface and the atmosphere in the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau (TP) region. However, the performance of ET product...
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Copernicus Publications
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
| Online Access: | https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/29/485/2025/hess-29-485-2025.pdf |
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| author | C. Zheng L. Jia G. Hu M. Menenti M. Menenti J. Timmermans |
| author_facet | C. Zheng L. Jia G. Hu M. Menenti M. Menenti J. Timmermans |
| author_sort | C. Zheng |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>Water vapour flux, expressed as evapotranspiration (ET), is critical for understanding the earth climate system and the complex heat–water exchange mechanisms between the land surface and the atmosphere in the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau (TP) region. However, the performance of ET products over the TP has not been adequately assessed, and there is still considerable uncertainty in the magnitude and spatial variability in the water vapour released from the TP into the atmosphere. In this study, we evaluated 22 ET products in the TP against in situ observations and basin-scale water balance estimations. This study also evaluated the spatiotemporal variability of the total vapour flux and of its components to clarify the vapour flux magnitude and variability in the TP. The results showed that the remote sensing high-resolution global ET data from ETMonitor and PMLV2 had a high accuracy, with overall better accuracy than other global and regional ET data with fine spatial resolution (<span class="inline-formula">∼</span> 1 <span class="inline-formula">km</span>), when comparing with in situ observations. When compared with water balance estimates of ET at the basin scale, ETMonitor and PMLV2 at finer spatial resolution and GLEAM and TerraClimate at coarse spatial resolution showed good agreement. Different products showed different patterns of spatiotemporal variability, with large differences in the central to western TP. The multi-year and multi-product mean ET in the TP was 333.1 <span class="inline-formula">mm yr<sup>−1</sup></span>, with a standard deviation of 38.3 <span class="inline-formula">mm yr<sup>−1</sup></span>. The ET components (i.e. plant transpiration, soil evaporation, canopy rainfall interception evaporation, open-water evaporation, and snow/ice sublimation) available from some products were also compared, and the contribution of these components to total ET varied considerably, even in cases where the total ET from different products was similar. Soil evaporation accounts for most of the total ET in the TP, followed by plant transpiration and canopy rainfall interception evaporation, while the contributions from open-water evaporation and snow/ice sublimation cannot be negligible.</p> |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-bdb9e877e4824a0b849d84a584bca1f3 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1027-5606 1607-7938 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-bdb9e877e4824a0b849d84a584bca1f32025-01-23T13:44:13ZengCopernicus PublicationsHydrology and Earth System Sciences1027-56061607-79382025-01-012948550610.5194/hess-29-485-2025How much water vapour does the Tibetan Plateau release into the atmosphere?C. Zheng0L. Jia1G. Hu2M. Menenti3M. Menenti4J. Timmermans5Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, ChinaKey Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, ChinaKey Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, ChinaKey Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, ChinaFaculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the NetherlandsFaculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands<p>Water vapour flux, expressed as evapotranspiration (ET), is critical for understanding the earth climate system and the complex heat–water exchange mechanisms between the land surface and the atmosphere in the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau (TP) region. However, the performance of ET products over the TP has not been adequately assessed, and there is still considerable uncertainty in the magnitude and spatial variability in the water vapour released from the TP into the atmosphere. In this study, we evaluated 22 ET products in the TP against in situ observations and basin-scale water balance estimations. This study also evaluated the spatiotemporal variability of the total vapour flux and of its components to clarify the vapour flux magnitude and variability in the TP. The results showed that the remote sensing high-resolution global ET data from ETMonitor and PMLV2 had a high accuracy, with overall better accuracy than other global and regional ET data with fine spatial resolution (<span class="inline-formula">∼</span> 1 <span class="inline-formula">km</span>), when comparing with in situ observations. When compared with water balance estimates of ET at the basin scale, ETMonitor and PMLV2 at finer spatial resolution and GLEAM and TerraClimate at coarse spatial resolution showed good agreement. Different products showed different patterns of spatiotemporal variability, with large differences in the central to western TP. The multi-year and multi-product mean ET in the TP was 333.1 <span class="inline-formula">mm yr<sup>−1</sup></span>, with a standard deviation of 38.3 <span class="inline-formula">mm yr<sup>−1</sup></span>. The ET components (i.e. plant transpiration, soil evaporation, canopy rainfall interception evaporation, open-water evaporation, and snow/ice sublimation) available from some products were also compared, and the contribution of these components to total ET varied considerably, even in cases where the total ET from different products was similar. Soil evaporation accounts for most of the total ET in the TP, followed by plant transpiration and canopy rainfall interception evaporation, while the contributions from open-water evaporation and snow/ice sublimation cannot be negligible.</p>https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/29/485/2025/hess-29-485-2025.pdf |
| spellingShingle | C. Zheng L. Jia G. Hu M. Menenti M. Menenti J. Timmermans How much water vapour does the Tibetan Plateau release into the atmosphere? Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
| title | How much water vapour does the Tibetan Plateau release into the atmosphere? |
| title_full | How much water vapour does the Tibetan Plateau release into the atmosphere? |
| title_fullStr | How much water vapour does the Tibetan Plateau release into the atmosphere? |
| title_full_unstemmed | How much water vapour does the Tibetan Plateau release into the atmosphere? |
| title_short | How much water vapour does the Tibetan Plateau release into the atmosphere? |
| title_sort | how much water vapour does the tibetan plateau release into the atmosphere |
| url | https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/29/485/2025/hess-29-485-2025.pdf |
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