Formation and Variation of the Atmospheric Heat Source over the Tibetan Plateau and Its Climate Effects

• Published in: Advances in atmospheric sciences Vol. 34; no. 10; pp. 1169 - 1184
• Main Authors: Wu, Guoxiong, He, Bian, Duan, Anmin, Liu, Yimin, Yu, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Science Press 01.10.2017; Springer Nature B.V; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China%State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China; School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China; State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
• Subjects: Angular momentum; Atmospheric circulation; Atmospheric Sciences; Circulation; Climate; Climate effects; Conservation; Conservation of momentum; Data processing; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Geophysics/Geodesy; Heat; Meridional circulation; Meteorology; Momentum; Monsoon circulation; Monsoons; Numerical experiments; Plateaus; Pumping; Remote sensing; Review; Satellite observation; Satellites; Summer monsoon; Troposphere; Upper troposphere; Water vapor; Water vapour; Weather stations; Wind; 亚洲夏季风; 卫星遥感数据; 大气热源; 大气环流; 气候效应; 西藏高原; 角动量守恒; 适用性评价; Tibetan Plateau; atmospheric heat source; Tibetan Plateau; 不确定性; 青藏高原; 大气热源; 气候效应; uncertainty; climate effect
• ISSN: 0256-1530; 1861-9533
• DOI: 10.1007/s00376-017-7014-5

To cherish the memory of the late Professor Duzheng YE on what would have been his 100 th birthday, and to celebrate his great accomplishment in opening a new era of Tibetan Plateau（TP） meteorology, this review paper provides an assessment of the atmospheric heat source（AHS） over the TP from different data resources, including observations from local meteorological stations, satellite remote sensing data, and various reanalysis datasets. The uncertainty and applicability of these heat source data are evaluated. Analysis regarding the formation of the AHS over the TP demonstrates that it is not only the cause of the atmospheric circulation, but is also a result of that circulation. Based on numerical experiments, the review further demonstrates that land–sea thermal contrast is only one part of the monsoon story. The thermal forcing of the Tibetan–Iranian Plateau plays a significant role in generating the Asian summer monsoon（ASM）, i.e., in addition to pumping water vapor from sea to land and from the lower to the upper troposphere, it also generates a subtropical monsoon–type meridional circulation subject to the angular momentum conservation, providing an ascending-air large-scale background for the development of the ASM.