China, Tibetan plateau site
ITC earth observation site for research and education
The Tibetan plateau sites are in operation in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The sites are maintained by the Institute for Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP/CAS) and the Cold and Arid regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (CAREERI/CAS) of Chinese Academy of Sciences, who have implemented their so-called Tibetan Observation and Research Platform (TORP).
Complementary to TORP the WRS department of ITC operates currently three networks related to climate and land-atmosphere interaction, more specifically one earth-observation site and two soil moisture observation networks in the Mt. Qomolangma (Mt. Everest), Nagqu and Maqu regions respectively.
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Measurements over the Tibetan plateau
The earth observations comprise of complete radiation and fluxes monitoring, water cycle observation, validation of satellite observation and processes research, water and climate. More specifically they are:
Mt. Qomolangma site
TORP: wind speed and direction, humidity, air temperature, snow depth, soil temperature and soil moisture at different depths, precipitation, four component radiation, air pressure, soil heat flux, turbulence measurements (eddy covariance system), profile of air temperature, wind speed and direction (wind profiler).
WRS-ITC: wind speed and direction, humidity, air temperature, air pressure, turbulence measurements (large aperture scintillometer, LAS).
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| Observations at Mt. Qomolangma site, courtesy Mireia Romaguera. |
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| Impressions of the Mt. Qomolangma area, snow-capped Qomolangma (Mt. Everest), southern part of the area, courtesy Wim Timmermans. |
Nagqu sites
TORP: wind speed and direction, humidity, air temperature, snow depth, soil temperature and soil moisture at different depths, precipitation, four component radiation, air pressure, soil heat flux, turbulence measurements (eddy covariance system), profile of air temperature, wind speed and direction (wind profiler).
WRS-ITC: Network of volumetric soil moisture and soil temperature at different depths.
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| Observations at Nagqu site, courtesy Rogier van der Velde. |
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| Impressions of Nagqu area, Nam Co lake in the north of the area. |
Maqu site
TORP: wind speed and direction, humidity, temperature at different heights, snow depth, soil temperature and soil moisture at different depths, precipitation, four component radiation, turbulence measurements.
WRS-ITC: Network of volumetric soil moisture and soil temperature at different depths.
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| Observations at Maqu site, courtesy Laura Dente. |
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| Impressions of Maqu area, courtesy of Laura Dente. |
Partners
Prof. Yaoming Ma
Leading scientist, boundary layer meteorology & satellite remote sensing applications
Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP/CAS)
P.O. Box 2871
Beijing 100085, P.R. China
Email: ymma@itpcas.ac.cn
Prof. Jun Wen, PhD
Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute
Chinese Academy of Sciences
260 Donggang West Road
Lanzhou 730000, Gansu
P.R.China
Email: jwen@lzb.ac.cn
PhD students
L. Dente - "Retrieval of soil moisture at global scale from satellite data acquired by passive and active microwave sensors"
M. Romaguera - "Development of a water information system for global scale water use assessment"
K. Weligepolage - "Surface roughness parameterization in heterogeneous land surfaces"
L. Zhong - "The Effects of Thermal Anomalies over the Tibetan Plateau and Indo-Pacific Warm Pool on the Summer Precipitation in China"
WRS department
Z. Su
W.J. Timmermans
R. van der Velde
Z. Vekerdy
Research topics: Land-atmosphere interaction, Climate and Climate change, Footprint, Soil moisture.
Research papers
Ma, W., Ma, Y., Li, M., Hu, Z., Zhong, L., Su, Z., Ishikawa, H., and Wang, J.: Estimating surface fluxes over the Tibetan Plateau area with ASTER imagery, HESS, 13, 57-67, 2009a.
Ma, Y., Wang, Y., Wu, R., Hu, Z., Yang, K., Li, M., Ma, W., Zhong, L., Sun, F., Chen, X., Zhu, Z., Wang, S., and Ishikawa, H.: Recent advances on the study of atmosphere-land interaction observations on the Tibetan Plateau, HESS, 13, 1103-1111, 2009b.
Romaguera, M., Hoekstra, A. Y., Su, Z., Krol, M. S., and Salama, M. S.: Potential of using remote sensing techniques to global assessment of water footprint of crops, Remote Sensing, Special Issue: Global Croplands, In Prep., 2009.
Timmermans, W. J., Su, Z., and Olioso, A.: Footprint issues in scintillometry over heterogeneous landscapes, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., Vol. 13, pp 2179-2190, 2009.
Velde, R. v. d., Su, Z., and Ma, Y.: Impact of soil moisture dynamics on ASAR σ0 signatures and its spatial variability observed over the Tibetan plateau, Sensors, 8, 5479-5491, doi: 10.3390/s8095479, 2008.
Velde, R. v. d., Su, Z., Ek, M., Rodell, M., and Ma, Y.: Influence of thermodynamic soil and vegetation parameterizations on the simulation of soil temperature states and surface fluxes by the Noah LSm over a Tibetan plateau site, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 13, 759-777, 2009.
Zhang, T., Wen, J., Velde, R. v. d., Meng, X., Li, Z., Liu, Y., and Liu, R.: Estimation of the total atmospheric water vapor content and land surface temperature based on AATSR thermal data, Sensors, 8, 1832-1845, 2008.
Zhong, L., Y. Ma, Z. Su, W. Ma, and Y. Lv, 2009, Land-atmosphere energy transfer and surface boundary layer characteristics in the Rongbu valley on the northern slope of Mt. Everest, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 41(3), 396–405.
Zhong, L., Y. Ma, S. Salama, and Z. Su, 2009, Assessment of vegetation dynamics and their response to variations in precipitation and temperature in the Tibetan Plateau, Climatic Change, Accepted.