Tianchi Lake on Changbai Mountain in northeast China's Jilin Province, June 14, 2019. With the temperature rising, Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve enters its tourism season. Many tourists from home and abroad come to enjoy its magnificent scenery and the view of Tianchi Lake. (Xinhua/Lin Hong)
BEIJING, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Researchers have disclosed that the lake ice in northeast China froze later and melted earlier with shortened frozen duration from 2003 to 2016, according to a recent study.
The researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and American universities used satellite data to establish the time series of lake ice extent and extracted lake ice freezing and thawing cycle dates and durations for eight large typical lakes in northeast China.
They found that the investigated lakes were tending to freeze later and melt earlier, implying a decrease in frozen duration of 0.84 days per year.
The lake ice duration was also found to increase with latitude, and the lakes with a relatively smaller area had a higher yearly rate of change and were more variable compared with the larger ones, said the study published in the International Journal of Remote Sensing.
The freeze-up process was more dependent on the lake size, while the break-up process was more dependent on changes to climate, particularly air temperature.
