Author(s): Rui Cao, Youcai Tuo, Yun Deng, Nan Li, Linglei Zhang
Linked Author(s): Yun DENG
Keywords: Yarlung Zangbo River, remote sensing, ice condition, river net.
Abstract: The Yarlung Zangbo River, located in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau of China, has the characteristics of strong solar radiation and low air temperature in meteorology and canyon interlacing with wide valley in topography. These characteristics make the ice conditions special in the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin. However, due to the lack of existing ice observation data, it is unable to reflect the spatial and temporal ice variation in this region. In this paper, we interpreted the single-band satellite images from 2003 to 2016 using decision tree classification based on NDWI via ENVI software, and analyzed the temporal and planar spatial variations of ice, the influence of air temperature on the ice conditions, and the relationship between topography and ice distribution. These results showed that 1) the ice period was Dec. to Feb. In general, ice conditions had small inter-annual variation, and the freeze-up intensity, length of border ice and ice period duration decreased as the altitude decreases from west to east; 2) the Zangmu reservoir weakened the hydrodynamic conditions, resulting in the occurrence of ice in the downstream of the Lhasa River estuary; 3) 9 steady ice jam positions existed in the middle Yarlung Zangbo River, which had the planar topographic features of bend and narrowed channel; 4) ice cover distributed denser in wide valleys than in Canyons. The study enriched and expanded existing studies of ice condition in the Yarlung Zangbo River and is a contribution for water resource development and ecological environment protection of the Yalung Zangbo River Basin
Year: 2017