Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-195
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-195
03 Aug 2022
 | 03 Aug 2022
Status: a revised version of this preprint is currently under review for the journal ESSD.

A monthly 0.01° terrestrial evapotranspiration product (1982–2018) for the Tibetan Plateau

Ling Yuan, Xuelong Chen, Yaoming Ma, Cunbo Han, Binbin Wang, and Weiqiang Ma

Abstract. Evapotranspiration (ET) is an important component of the water balance system in the “Asian water tower” region, the Tibetan Plateau (TP). However, accurately monitoring and understanding the spatial and temporal variability of the ET components (soil evaporation Es, canopy transpiration Ec, and intercepted water evaporation Ew) on the TP remains gravely challenging due to the paucity of observational data for this remote area. In this study, the 37 years (1982–2018) of monthly ET component data for the TP were produced using the MOD16-STM model, which uses the recently available soil properties, meteorological conditions, and remote sensing datasets. The estimated ET results correlate very well with the measurements from nine flux towers, with a low root mean square error of 13.48 mm/month, mean bias of 2.85 mm/month, coefficient of determination of 0.83, and index of agreement of 0.92. The annual average ET for the entire TP (specified as elevations higher than 2500 m) is about 0.93 ± 0.037 Gt/year. The main contribution of the ET on the TP comes from the soil, with the Es accounting for more than 84 % of the ET. During the study period, the ET exhibited a significant increasing trend, with rates of about 1–4 mm/year (p < 0.05), over most parts of the central and eastern TP and a significant decreasing trend, with rates of −3 to −1 mm/year, over the northwestern TP. The rate of increase in the ET on the TP over the past 37 years was around 0.96 mm/year. The increase in the ET over the entire TP from 1982 to 2018 can be explained by the warming and wetting trend of the climate on the TP during this period. The MOD16-STM ET data exhibited an acceptable performance over the TP compared with previous results. The MOD16-STM ET can adequately represent the actual ET and can be used for research on water resource management, drought monitoring, and ecological change. The whole datasets are freely available at the Science Data Bank (http://doi.org/10.11922/sciencedb.00020, Y. Ma, X.Chen, L. Yuan, 2021) and the National Tibetan Plateau Data Center (TPDC) (http://doi.org/10.11888/Terre.tpdc.271913, L. Yuan, X.Chen, Y. Ma, 2021).

Ling Yuan et al.

Status: final response (author comments only)

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on essd-2022-195', Anonymous Referee #1, 13 Nov 2022
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Ling Yuan, 01 Mar 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on essd-2022-195', Anonymous Referee #2, 14 Nov 2022
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Ling Yuan, 01 Mar 2023
  • RC3: 'Comment on essd-2022-195', Anonymous Referee #3, 08 Dec 2022
    • AC3: 'Reply on RC3', Ling Yuan, 01 Mar 2023

Ling Yuan et al.

Data sets

Long term variations of monthly terrestrial evapotranspiration over the Tibetan Plateau (1982-2018) Yaoming Ma, Xuelong Chen, Ling Yuan http://doi.org/10.11922/sciencedb.00020

Significantly increased evapotranspiration reveals accelerated water cycle on the Tibetan Plateau during 1982–2018 Ling Yuan, Xuelong Chen, Ma Yaoming http://doi.org/10.11888/Terre.tpdc.271913

Ling Yuan et al.

Viewed

Total article views: 1,163 (including HTML, PDF, and XML)
HTML PDF XML Total BibTeX EndNote
859 276 28 1,163 13 20
  • HTML: 859
  • PDF: 276
  • XML: 28
  • Total: 1,163
  • BibTeX: 13
  • EndNote: 20
Views and downloads (calculated since 03 Aug 2022)
Cumulative views and downloads (calculated since 03 Aug 2022)

Viewed (geographical distribution)

Total article views: 1,136 (including HTML, PDF, and XML) Thereof 1,136 with geography defined and 0 with unknown origin.
Country # Views %
  • 1
1
 
 
 
 
Latest update: 28 Nov 2023
Download
Short summary
Accurately monitoring and understanding the spatial and temporal variability of the ET components over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) remains difficult. Here, 37 years (1982–2018) of monthly ET component data for the TP were produced, and is very consistent with the measurements .The annual average ET for the entire TP was about 0.93 ± 0.037 Gt/year. The rate of increase of the ET was around 0.96 mm/year. The increase in the ET can be explained by warming and wetting of the climate.
Altmetrics