Abstract
The dynamic and thermal effects of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) on the precipitation in the Asian arid and monsoon regions were investigated using three numerical experiments—one using real topography, one with the whole TP removed, and one with sensible heat turned off over the TP. The results show that there are strong seasonal and regional differences in the dynamic and thermal effects of the TP on the precipitation in the Asian arid regions. The dynamic effect dominated the decrease in winter precipitation by blocking the westerly, while the thermal effect dominated the decrease in summer precipitation due to the TP-induced compensation downdraft in Central Asia and arid East Asia. The thermal effect dominated and accounted for 60% of the decrease in summer precipitation in West Asia. The results also show that both the dynamic and thermal effects of TP exhibit a more salient influence on the East Asian monsoon region than the South Asian monsoon region. The thermal effect dominated and accounted for 40% of the increase in summer precipitation due to intensification of the summer monsoon, while the dynamic effect dominated and accounted for 80% of the decrease in winter precipitation due to the northeast wind anomaly in the northern East Asian monsoon region. The anomalous wind can reach to the coast of South China and form frontal precipitation in the southern East Asian monsoon region in winter. The thermal effect dominated and accounted for 80% of the increase in precipitation in the pre-monsoon period due to intensification of the Asian summer monsoon.
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Data availability
All simulation data can be downloaded from the CMIP6 website (https://esgf-node.llnl.gov/projects/cmip6/). The CRU and ERA-interim can be obtained from https://crudata.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/hrg/cru_ts_3.23/cruts.1506241137.v3.23/ and https://apps.ecmwf.int/datasets/data/interim-full-moda/levtype=sfc/.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the First Institute of Oceanography Ministry of Natural Resources for providing the simulation data (https://esgf-node.llnl.gov/projects/cmip6/). The thorough reviews and critical comments from three anonymous reviewers are highly appreciated. This research was jointly supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB40030100, XDA20070103) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41690115, 41991254).
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Sun, H., Liu, X. Impacts of dynamic and thermal forcing by the Tibetan Plateau on the precipitation distribution in the Asian arid and monsoon regions. Clim Dyn 56, 2339–2358 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05593-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05593-9