Analysis on Relationship between Lake Change and Climate Change in the Ulan Buh Desert

Abstract

In recent years,the lakes in desert have been significant changed. Based on the satellite data and climate data,this paper analyzes the variation of two lakes in the Ulan Buh Desert. Using CBERS CCD data during the period from 2000 to 2008,the best wave bands were chosen to process the image,such as the high-accuracy geometric registration and mosaic,the brim information was extracted,and the change figures of the lakes in the Ulan Buh Desert were charted. A spectral reflection curve was charted with a TM image in 2000 to identify the changed area of the lakes. In order to avoid the contingency,the areas of each lake in recent continuous years were used to calculate the average area of each lake. The correlation coefficients between lake areas and climate change in recent 20 years were calculated. The result shows that the trend was accordant well with the result of remote sensing detection,and there was a significant positive correlation between the lake area and the annual precipitation. The lakes with small area were more sensitive to climate change than those with large area. The study result shows that remote sensing is of high usability in monitoring the lakes in desert,especially in west Inner Mongolia.