Quantifying Surface Energy Fluxes and Evaporation over a Significant Expanding Endorheic Lake in the Central Tibetan Plateau

In this study, energy and water vapor exchange between the lake and atmosphere over the largest lake in Tibet, Lake Serling Co, was measured by an eddy covariance system from April 26 until September 26, 2014. The results demonstrated that the diurnal variations of the sensible heat flux (H) and latent heat flux (LE) were different from that of the net radiation (R-n). R-n reached its peak value at the local noon, whereas H peaked in the morning and LE peaked in the afternoon. On a seasonal scale, H and LE were also different from R-n. The maximum value of R-n occurred in June, while the maxima of H and LE were observed in September. Lake evaporation was quantified with a daily mean value of 2.7 mm d(-1) and a total amount of 417.0 mm during the study period. In addition, evaporation from Lake Serling Co was compared with two types of pan evaporation (D20 pan and E601B pan) and potential evaporation on the land surface. The variability of conversion coefficients between lake evaporation, D20/E601B pan and potential evaporation indicate that coefficients varied depending on the month and could not be defined as a single experimental value.