Modelling plant canopy effects on water-heat exchange in the freezingthawing processes of active layer on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

The effect of vegetation on the water-heat exchange in the freezing-thawing processes of active layer is one of the key issues in the study of land surface processes and in predicting the response of alpine ecosystems to climate change in permafrost regions. In this study, we used the simultaneous heat and water model to investigate the effects of plant canopy on surface and subsurface hydrothermal dynamics in the Fenghuoshan area of the QinghaiTibet Plateau by changing the leaf area index(LAI) and keeping other variables constant. Results showed that the sensible heat, latent heat and net radiation are increased with an increase in the LAI. However, the ground heat flux decreased with an increasing LAI. The annual total evapotranspiration and vegetation transpiration ranged from-16% to 9% and-100% to 15%, respectively, in response to extremes of doubled and zero LAI, respectively. There was a negative feedback between vegetation and the volumetric unfrozen water content at 0.2 m through changing evapotranspiration. The simulation results of soil temperature and moisture suggest that better vegetation conditions are conducive to maintaining the thermal stability of the underlying permafrost, and the advanced initial thawing time and increasing thawing rate of soil ice with the increase in the LAI may have a great influence on the timing and magnitude of supra-permafrost groundwater. This study quantifies the impact of vegetation change on surface and subsurface hydrothermal processes and provides a basic understanding for evaluating the impact of vegetation degradation on the water-heat exchange in permafrost regions under climate change.

A Techno-Economical Characterization of Solar PV Power Generation in Rwanda:The Role of Subsidies and Incentives

Standalone Solar PV systems have been vital in the improvement of access to energy in many countries.However,given the large cost of solar PV plants’components,in developing countries,there is a dear need for such components to be subsidised and incentivised for the consumers to afford the produced energy.Moreover,there is a need for optimal sizing of the solar PV plants taking into account the solar information,energy requirement for various activities,and economic conditions in the off-grid regions in Rwanda.This study aims to develop optimally sized solar PV plants suited to rural communities in Rwanda.Likewise,it aims at characterizing the impacts of subsidies and incentives on the profitability and affordability of solar PV plants’energy in Rwanda.In the study,we have developed a model on basis of which the plant power(peak power)and costs of energy can be predicted given the load requirements using PVSyst.The model was validated using data corrected at eight different sites.Our generalized predictive model’s results matched the results obtained using field measurement data as inputs.The models have been able to replicate with a by degree of accuracy the peak powers and the plants’costs for different loads and were used to evaluate the economic viability of solar PV plants in Rwanda.It was found that with incentives and subsidies of 20%,the solar PV systems’costs,the Levelised Cost of Energy would drop from a maximum of 0.098 Euro to a minimum of 0.072 Euro,the payback period was reduced from a maximum of 7.5 years to a minimum of 6.0 years while the return on investments was seen to vary between 425.72 and 615.32 per cent over the plants’lifetime of 25 years.Overall our findings underscore the importance of government subsidies and incentives for solar PV energy generation projects to be significantly profitable.

Coupling numerical simulation with remotely sensed information for the study of frozen soil dynamics

The acquisition of spatial-temporal information of frozen soil is fundamental for the study of frozen soil dynamics and its feedback to climate change in cold regions.With advancement of remote sensing and better understanding of frozen soil dynamics,discrimination of freeze and thaw status of surface soil based on passive microwave remote sensing and numerical simulation of frozen soil processes under water and heat transfer principles provides valuable means for regional and global frozen soil dynamic monitoring and systematic spatial-temporal responses to global change.However,as an important data source of frozen soil processes,remotely sensed information has not yet been fully utilized in the numerical simulation of frozen soil processes.Although great progress has been made in remote sensing and frozen soil physics,yet few frozen soil research has been done on the application of remotely sensed information in association with the numerical model for frozen soil process studies.In the present study,a distributed numerical model for frozen soil dynamic studies based on coupled water-heat transferring theory in association with remotely sensed frozen soil datasets was developed.In order to reduce the uncertainty of the simulation,the remotely sensed frozen soil information was used to monitor and modify relevant parameters in the process of model simulation.The remotely sensed information and numerically simulated spatial-temporal frozen soil processes were validated by in-situ field observations in cold regions near the town of Naqu on the East-Central Tibetan Plateau.The results suggest that the overall accuracy of the algorithm for discriminating freeze and thaw status of surface soil based on passive microwave remote sensing was more than 95%.These results provided an accurate initial freeze and thaw status of surface soil for coupling and calibrating the numerical model of this study.The numerically simulated frozen soil processes demonstrated good performance of the distributed numerical model based on the coupled water-heat transferring theory.The relatively larger uncertainties of the numerical model were found in alternating periods between freezing and thawing of surface soil.The average accuracy increased by about 5%after integrating remotely sensed information on the surface soil.The simulation accuracy was significantly improved,especially in transition periods between freezing and thawing of the surface soil.

西藏羊卓雍错湖面水热通量变化及其与气象因子的关联

Lake surface water-heat exchange and its climatic attribution critically influence alpine lakes’evaporation mechanism and water storage balance with climate change.Here,this paper first explored the hourly,daily,and monthly water-heat flux variations of the lake surface and their correlations with meteorological factors based on the eddy covariance turbulent flux observation over the Yamzhog Yumco,an alpine lake in south Tibet in the non-freezing period(April-December)in 2016 and 2017.We found that the average latent heat flux was much higher than the sensible heat flux on the lake surface from April to December.Meanwhile,the water-heat flux exhibited remarkable seasonal variation,with a prominent role of higher air temperature and humidity in summer jointly controlling the lake-air energy exchange.Moreover,the main controlling meteorological factors for the water-heat flux variation of the lake surface differed with diversified timescales.First,the lake-air temperature difference was the most significant meteorological factor related to sensible heat flux on the half-hourly,daily,and monthly timescales.Second,the latent heat flux was strongly positively correlated with wind speed and the synergies of wind speed and water vapor pressure deficit on the daily and half-hourly timescales.Third,the lake surface heat flux was significantly negatively correlated with net radiation flux on the daily and monthly scales.The negative correlation can be attributed to the seasonal variation of the water surface net radiation,and the phase difference in heat flux intensity caused by the lake-air temperature difference and heat capacity contrast.Our findings will hopefully improve the understanding of energy exchange and evaporation mechanisms for alpine lakes in a warming climate.