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Hydrological balance modelling of the southern Aral Sea between 1993 and 2001
Auteur(s)
Date de parution
2005
In
Hydrological Sciences Journal-Journal Des Sciences Hydrologiques
Vol.
6
No
50
De la page
1119
A la page
1135
Résumé
Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Aral Sea is made of two separate entities: the Small Aral in the north and the Great Aral in the south. In this study, the water and salt balance of the Great Aral is analysed using newly available data: on the one hand, altimetric data of the sea level provided by the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite; and on the other, climate data provided by the ECMWF and NOAA within the framework of global climate re-analysis. These data indicate that the Great Aral received a mean groundwater inflow of about 4 km(3) year(-1) between 1993 and 2001. Without this contribution, the Aral Sea would disappear even faster than is being observed today. Moreover, the temporal resolution of the data shows a systematic phase difference between the model prediction and satellite measurements. This phase shift is considered to be due to the formation of temporary lakes between the last station measuring the Amu-Darya discharge and its mouth in the Great Aral.
Identifiants
Type de publication
journal article
