Sharif Digital Repository

Lake surface temperature is an important indicator of the lake state and a driver of regional weather and climate near large lakes. The objective of this study is to use thermal imagery from the MODIS on board the Earth Observing System Terra and Aqua platforms to assess the spatial and temporal variations in Urmia lake temperature. Urmia Lake, located in northwestern Iran is one of the largest permanent hypersaline lakes in the world. The surface temperature of Urmia Lake is examined between 2008 and 2009, as dry years. MODIS-derived lake SWT then was calibrated with monthly observations. MODIS-derived lake SWT exhibits a cool bias (-0.72°C) relative to in situ temperature observations in... 

Lake Urmia is the second-largest hypersaline lake in the world. There has been a drastic water level drop of 7.2 m from 1995 to 2016. Beginning in October 2013, the Lake Urmia Restoration Plan (LURP) launched a 10-year program. An increase in water level and a relative improvement in Lake Urmia condition has been observed since 2017. It is an undecided and controversial issue whether the recent positive trend of Lake Urmia has been due to the LURP activities or it is a natural contribution of climate factors variations. To shed some light on this issue, we examine three other lakes, adjacent to the Lake Urmia basin, with similar rainfall variability to investigate their status during the... 

Lake Urmia, which was once the second-largest saline lake in the world, has been shrinking dramatically. Moreover, Lake Urmia has become supersaturated with total salinity averaging more than 350 g/l. Salt precipitation and dissolved materials brought by inflowing rivers have formed a layer of sediment with low hydraulic conductivity on the lakebed. Considering the flat bathymetry of Lake Urmia, we conducted a series of numerical simulation scenarios to study the groundwater flow pattern in the vicinity of the hypersaline Lake Urmia using COMSOL Multiphysics®. In the first step, we performed the simulations in steady-state conditions. Secondly, we simulated the lake level fall in 10 years at... 

This study investigated the lake–aquifer hydraulic interactions in Lake Urmia (LU) as the second largest hypersaline lake in the world. Due to the scarcity of hydrogeological data required for modelling, a method based on Darcy’s Law and lake water budget was used to quantify the lake–aquifer interaction. Long-term ground- and satellite-based hydrological datasets over the time frame 2001–2019 were used. Results indicate that the groundwater flux between LU and the aquifers controls 18.74 ± 1.67% of the lake’s water storage. While 10 out of 14 adjacent aquifers recharge LU at a rate of less than 180 m3/m.month, one phreatic aquifer recharges the LU up to 1400 m3/m.month. Two aquifers are... 

Lake Urmia (LU) is the second largest hypersaline lake in the world. Lake Urmia's water level has dropped drastically from 1277.85 m to 1270.08 m a.s.l (equal to 7.77 m) during the last 20 years, equivalent to a loss of 70% of the lake area. The likelihood of lake-groundwater connection on the basin-scale is uncertain and understudied because of lack of basic data and precise information required for physically-based modeling. In this study, cross-correlation analysis is applied on a various time-frames of water level of the lake and groundwater levels (2001–2018) recorded in 797 observation wells across 17 adjacent aquifers. This provides insightful information on the lake-groundwater...