Abstract
To gain a better understanding of the regional hydrometeorology in relation to the unique climate and topography of the Tibetan Plateau, algorithms are developed to estimate the surface temperature, surface albedo, cloud properties, and surface radiative fluxes based on Indian Satellite infrared and visible measurements. The spatial distribution patterns of temperature and albedo are found to closely correspond to surface topographical and biophysical features. Temperatures are much lower over the elevated plateau than over the surrounding regions. The variations of temperature can exceed 10°C within a distance of 50 km in the central plateau region and 20°C across the boundary of the plateau during daytime. The surface albedo field also exhibits non-smooth features with the smallest values less than 16% over the eastern plateau and the largest values exceeding 28% over the northern plateau. The horizontal distributions of surface fluxes are largely influenced by both topography and distribution of cloudiness. Following the topographical feature, longwave upwelling fluxes generally decrease with increasing elevation; and the largest values of surface downwelling shortwave flux are found over the western plateau where the surface elevation is highest. Under the influence of the cloudiness patterns, the downwelling shortwave flux decreases toward the south as there are larger cloud amounts and greater moisture contents over the southern plateau and the region off the southern plateau. In these regions the frequent occurrences of deep-convective clouds sngwave upwelling fluxes generally decrease with increasing elevation; and the largest values of surface downwelling shortwave flux are found over the western plateau where the surface elevation is highest. Under the influence of the cloudiness patterns, the downwelling shortwave flux decreases toward the south as there are larger cloud amounts and greater moisture contents over the southern plateau and the region off the southern plateau. In these regions the frequent occurrences of deep-convective clouds significantly decreases the transparency of the atmosphere and thus reduces the solar radiation reaching the surface.
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© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Shi, L. (1996). Derivation of Surface Temperature, Albedo, and Radiative Fluxes over the Tibetan Plateau Based on Satellite Measurement. In: Jones, J.A.A., Liu, C., Woo, MK., Kung, HT. (eds) Regional Hydrological Response to Climate Change. The GeoJournal Library, vol 38. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5676-9_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5676-9_21
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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