The Impact of the Flooding of a Depression East of the Caspian Sea on the Regional Environment
Abstract
In the central-eastern part of the Caspian Sea, several depressions can be found. The Institute (THI) has developed a concept on the regional climate impacts of flooding the natural depressions, Ashisor and Karagie. In particular, historical mapping data confirms that these depressions were once part of the Caspian Sea within recent memory - not more than 150-200 years ago. The flooding of these depressions is currently being proposed in order to achieve a positive impact on the environment, including weather, and to combine this effort with energy production and several other economical and agricultural projects.
In this work, we present a study of the impact of the flooding of two depressions on the regional environment and weather. For this purpose, we used the WRF-NOAHMP model in combination with a dynamic lake model (WRF-NOAHMP-LAKE). The model was forced by ERA5 data during June 2017 and simulations were run both with and without flooded depressions - called Impact and Control runs, respectively. Within the Impact run, we observe substantial modification of surface water and land surface temperatures in the region of the artificial lake, as well as changes in 2-m atmospheric temperature and moisture fields. Additionally, the depth of the planetary boundary layer was reduced. The diurnal cycle of the 2-m temperature was damped by up to 4 degrees in comparison to the Control run and moisture was enhanced by up to 3 g/kg. Particularly interesting was a change of the sea breeze and the corresponding convergence zones in the region of the artificial lake, which - in combination with the modified PBL structure - resulted in an enhancement of cloudiness and even an impact on precipitation in the southern part of the lake and southwest of the lake. Overall, a substantial positive impact on the regional environment and weather patterns was found, which supports the realization of this flooding enterprise for economic and agricultural projects in this continental desert region.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMGC24B..07W
- Keywords:
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- 1622 Earth system modeling;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1631 Land/atmosphere interactions;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1632 Land cover change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1655 Water cycles;
- GLOBAL CHANGE