The temperature distribution in Phnom Penh was measured using a car to evaluate the thermal characteristics and air pollution in the city. The measurements were made by using temp-hygro sensors with a data logger installed on the car roof and were conducted both during day and night to evaluate the influence of land use. The water temperature was also measured in the River Tonle Sap and the Mekong. By measuring the temperature as a function of distance from the banks of the Mekong and Tonle Sap, the cooling effect of the river was also investigated. Ambient particulates were simultaneously sampled at three different sites in the city along with NO2 and PAHs and heavy metal concentrations were analyzed. The temperature distribution was compared with the concentration of chemical compositions and NO2. The maximum temperature difference, the so called heat island intensity, was observed during the daytime and was around 4-5°C, and was less than 2°C during the nighttime. The maximum and minimum temperatures respectively were observed in the southern part of the city and the river peninsula between the Tonle Sap river and the Mekong, and a strong cooling effect of river water was found. The water temperature was consistently lower than the ambient and temperature distributions perpendicular to the river and was found to increase with the distance from the riverbank, suggesting that inland areas were cooled to some extent. Comparison of the concentrations of anthropogenic PAHs and NO2 were found to be closely related to temperature.
Kuttara Volcano, Hokkaido, Japan, consists of temperate Lake Kuttara and the western Noboribetsu geothermal area. In order to explore geothermal relations between Lake Kuttara and the geothermal area, the heat budget of a hydrothermal pond, Okunoyu, was evaluated, and the heat storage change in the lower layer of Lake Kuttara was calculated by monitoring the water temperature at the deepest point. The lake water temperature consistently increased during the thermal stratification in June–November of 2013–2016. The heat flux QB at lake bottom was then calculated at a range of 4.1–10.9 W/m2, which is probably due to the leakage from a hydrothermal reservoir below the lake bottom. Meanwhile, the heat flux HGin by geothermal groundwater input in Okunoyu was evaluated at 3.5–8.5 kW/m2, which is rapidly supplied through faults from underlying hydrothermal reservoirs. With a time lag of 5 months to monthly mean QB values in Lake Kuttara, the correlation with monthly mean HGin in Okunoyu was significant (R2 = 0.586; p < 0.01). Applying Darcy’s law to the leakage from the hydrothermal reservoir at 260–310 m below the lake bottom, the time needed for groundwater’s passage through the media 260–310 m thick was evaluated at 148–149 days (ca. 5 months). These findings suggest that the hydrothermal reservoir below lake bottom and the underlying hydrothermal reservoirs in the western geothermal area are both connected to a unique geothermal source in the deeper zone as a geothermal flow system of Kuttara Volcano.
Exploring how the hydrological and thermal conditions of a volcanic lake change in response to volcanic activity is important to identify the signs of a volcanic eruption. A water cycle system and a geothermal process in a crater lake, Okama, in the active Zao Volcano, Japan, were explored by estimating the hydrological and chemical budgets of the lake, and analyzing the time series of lake water temperature, respectively. In 2021, the lake level consistently increased by snowmelt plus rainfall in May–June, and then stayed nearly constant in the rainfall season of July–September. The hydrological budget estimated during the increasing lake level indicated that the net groundwater inflow is at any time positive. This suggests that the groundwater inflow to the lake is controlled by the water percolation into volcanic debris from the melting of snow that remained in the catchment. Solving the simultaneous equation from the hydrological and chemical budgets evaluated the groundwater inflow, Gin, at 0.012–0.040 m3/s, and the groundwater outflow, Gout, at 0.012–0.027 m3/s in May–September 2021. By adding the 2020 values of Gin and Gout evaluated at the relatively high lake level, it was found that Gin and Gout exhibit highly negative and positive correlations (R2 = 0.661 and 0.848; p < 0.01) with the lake level, respectively. In the completely ice-covered season of 15 December 2021–28 February 2022, the lake water temperature increased between the bottom and 15 m above the bottom at the deepest point, which reflects the geothermal heat input at the bottom. The heat storage change during the increasing water temperature was evaluated at a range of −0.4–5.5 W/m2 as the 10-day moving average heat flux. By accumulating the daily heat storage change for the calculated period, the water temperature averaged over the heated layer increased from 1.08 to 1.56 °C. The small temperature increase reflects a stagnant state of volcanic activity in the Zao Volcano. The present study could be useful to investigate how an active volcano responds to water percolation and geothermal heat.