Comparison of Typical Alpine Lake Surface Elevation Variations and Different Driving Forces by Remote Sensing Altimetry Method

Alpine lakes play a significant role in improving watershed ecology, adjusting water storage, and managing regional water resources. They are also a valuable freshwater reservoir, flood storage, and species gene pool in Central Asia. This article validated the accuracy of the CryoSat-2 footprints altimetry dataset for the Lake Bosten and Lake Issyk-Kul ranges. The time series for the surface elevations of the Central Asian alpine lakes Karakul and Chatyrkul were established, based on footprints altimetry data. The lake hydrological drivers were analyzed using remote sensing meteorological reanalysis data of the lake basins. The following main conclusions were reached. The CryoSat-2 footprints altimetry dataset has high confidence in lake surface elevation monitoring. Compared with Hydroweb monitoring results, the agreement between the monitoring results in the range between Lake Bosten and Lake Issyk-Kul are 0.96 and 0.84. The surface elevation of Lake Karakul shows an overall increasing trend with a variation rate of +7.7 cm/yr from 2010 to 2020, which has a positive correlation with the temperature in the basin. This indicates that the increased temperature, which results in the increased snow and ice meltwater in the basin, is the main driving force of the increased lake evolution. The lake surface elevation of Lake Chatyrkul shows an overall decreasing trend, with a variation rate of −9.9 cm/yr from 2010 to 2020, which has a negative correlation with the temperature in the basin. This suggests that Lake Chatyrkul is poorly recharged by snow and ice meltwater. The main driving force of its evolution is the increased evaporative output of the lake due to the increase in temperature. These conclusions prove that temperature and alpine glacial variability within the lake basin play an important role in lake surface elevation variations in alpine regions of Central Asia.