A Watershed-Scale Hydrologic Process Study of Lake El

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This pilot project will begin a study of the climate and hydrology near the isolated Lake El'gygytgyn in Siberia. This unique lake was formed by a meteor impact about 3.6 million years ago. Other funded projects are evaluating the climate history of eastern Siberia by examination of the undisturbed sediments in the Lake. The proposed project would place a full meteorological tower at one of the stream inlets to the Lake in order to measure precipitation, air temperature, soil moisture, solar radiation, relative humidity, snow depth, and soil temperature. This data will begin baseline measurements of the local climate. Data would be collected during 6 weeks in summer 2000 and instruments left for automated collection over the next 2 years. The data would be used to begin an evaluation the hydrological cycle in eastern Siberia, a region where our current understanding of regional climatological is weak. This work could form the basis for more extensive future research on the vegetation and water cycles of Siberia following the research format presently occurring in the Alaskan tundra.