The Summer Snow Cover Anomaly over the Tibetan Plateau and Its Association with Simultaneous Precipitation over the Mei-yu-Baiu region

• Published in: Advances in atmospheric sciences Vol. 31; no. 4; pp. 755 - 764
• Main Authors: Liu, Ge, Wu, Renguang, Zhang, Yuanzhi, Nan, Sulan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Science Press 01.07.2014; Springer Nature B.V; National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100012; Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences,Beijing,100081%Institute of Space and Earth Information Science and Shenzhen Research Institute, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR%Institute of Space and Earth Information Science and Shenzhen Research Institute, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR
• Subjects: Anomalies; Atmospheric Sciences; Circulation; Climate effects; Climate variability; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Geophysics/Geodesy; Indian Ocean; Marine; Meteorology; Precipitation; Snow; Snow cover; Summer; Tropical environments; Vertical motion; 垂直运动; 夏季降水; 年际时间尺度; 梅雨; 热带印度洋; 积雪异常; 雨区; 青藏高原; China, People's Rep., Xizang, Tibetan Plateau; ISW, North Indian Ocean; IS, Tropical Pacific; IN, North Pacific; ISW, Tropical Indian Ocean; Tibetan Plateau; precipitation; snow cover; baiu; mei-yu
• ISSN: 0256-1530; 1861-9533
• DOI: 10.1007/s00376-013-3183-z

The summer snow anomalies over the Tibetan Plateau （TP） and their effects on climate variability are often overlooked,possibly due to the fact that some datasets cannot properly capture summer snow cover over high terrain.The satellite-derived Equal-Area Scalable Earth grid （EASE-grid） dataset shows that snow still exists in summer in the western part and along the southem flank of the TP.Analysis demonstrates that the summer snow cover area proportion （SCAP） over the TP has a significant positive correlation with simultaneous precipitation over the mei-yu-baiu （MB） region on the interannual time scale.The close relationship between the summer SCAP and summer precipitation over the MB region could not be simply considered as a simultaneous response to the Silk Road pattern and the SST anomalies in the tropical Indian Ocean and tropical central-eastern Pacific.The SCAP anomaly has an independent effect and may directly modulate the land surface heating and,consequently,vertical motion over the western TP,and concurrently induce anomalous vertical motion over the North Indian Ocean via a meridional vertical circulation.Through a zonal vertical circulation over the tropics and a Kelvin wave-type response,anomalous vertical motion over the North Indian Ocean may result in an anomalous high over the western North Pacific and modulate the convective activity in the western Pacific warm pool,which stimulates the East Asia-Pacific （EAP） pattern and eventually affects summer precipitation over the MB region.