Issyk-Kul

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Station Characteristics Name : Issyk-Kul Country : Kyrgyzstan GAW Category : Regional Platform : Ground base Location : 42.62ºN   76.98ºE   1640m a.m.s.l. Time Zone : Address : Manas St. 101, Bishkek, 720033 Kyrgyz Republic Organization : 1) Kyrgyz National University, Kyrgyz Republic 2) Institute of Experimental Meteorology SPA "Typhoon", Russia Description : The Issyk Kul station located in the center of Eurasia (the Northern Tien Shan) on the north coast of Issyk-Kul lake. Issyk-Kul lake represents one from the largest intermountain hollows of Tien Shan, located on the northeast of Kyrgyzstan. It is enclosed by two large arcs of mountain circuits: in north that is Khungey Ala Tao and in the south that is Terskoy Ala Tao, converging in west and east and forming the closed space. The hollow is prolate west-to-east more than on 250 km and has a widthway from the south to north about 100 km. From the total area about 23000 km2 of the hollow a water surface of the lake, located at the height of 1609 m above a sea level, takes 6292 km2. Northern part of littoral valley located below 1800 m above a sea level, and it widthway changes from 2 up to 10 km. The foothill ridges are raised up to 1 km above lake, and enclosing mountain ridges have the heights up to 4,5 - 5,2 km above a sea level. Mountainous chains, surrounding the lake, hinder the transport of the polluted air from Chu Valley (Bishkek city, capital of Kyrgyzstan) and from the huge industrial center Almaty in neighboring Kazakhstan. Hence, the atmosphere over the Issyk-Kul basin, which has no sources of industrial pollution, can be considered as the background, typical for rural conditions of the Central Asia mountainous region. Due to the heat stored during a warm season in surface layers, Issyk-Kul lake does not freeze in cold time.