Impact of aeolian sediments on the ice-covered lake surface temperature of Zonag Lake, Tibetan Plateau

Abstract. Aeolian sediments on ice-covered lakes can modify surface energy conditions and potentially influence the thermal environment of lake ice. However, the quantitative relationship between aeolian sediments and lake ice surface temperature remains insufficiently understood. This study investigates the relationship between aeolian sediments and ice-covered lake surface temperature (LST) in Zonag Lake on the Tibetan Plateau using multi-temporal Landsat 8 OLI imagery and MOD11A1 LST data from 2013 to 2018. The Normalized Difference Sandy Land Index (NDSLI) was applied to identify the distribution of aeolian sediments on lake ice. To quantify the sediment impact on LST, spatial regression analyses were conducted using ordinary least squares (OLS), geographically weighted regression (GWR) and multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR). The results show that NDSLI effectively captures the spatial distribution and migration patterns of aeolian sediments on lake ice. Sediment-covered areas (NDSLI < 0) consistently exhibit higher temperature than uncovered areas (NDSLI > 0), with observed temperature differences ranging from 0.83 to 2.36 °C. Finer-scale NDSLI classification indicates a progressive increase in surface temperature with increasing sediment accumulation. Spatial regression results reveal a significant positive relationship between sediment and LST, with MGWR providing the best model performance and explanatory capability among the tested models. This study provides quantitative evidence that aeolian sediment deposition can modify the thermal conditions of lake ice surfaces, offering new insights into cryosphere–aeolian interactions in arid-cold regions and improving the understanding of thermal variability in ice-covered lakes.