Summer rainfall over the southwestern Tibetan Plateau controlled by deep convection over the Indian subcontinent

Wenhao Dong, Yanluan Lin (), Jonathon S. Wright, Yi Ming, Yuanyu Xie, Bin Wang, Yong Luo, Wenyu Huang, Jianbin Huang, Lei Wang, Lide Tian, Yiran Peng and Fanghua Xu
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Wenhao Dong: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Center for Earth System Science, and Joint Center for Global Change Studies (JCGCS), Tsinghua University, Room S813, MengMinwei Science Building, Qinghuayuan 1, Beijing 100084, China
Yanluan Lin: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Center for Earth System Science, and Joint Center for Global Change Studies (JCGCS), Tsinghua University, Room S813, MengMinwei Science Building, Qinghuayuan 1, Beijing 100084, China
Jonathon S. Wright: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Center for Earth System Science, and Joint Center for Global Change Studies (JCGCS), Tsinghua University, Room S813, MengMinwei Science Building, Qinghuayuan 1, Beijing 100084, China
Yi Ming: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton/NOAA
Yuanyu Xie: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Center for Earth System Science, and Joint Center for Global Change Studies (JCGCS), Tsinghua University, Room S813, MengMinwei Science Building, Qinghuayuan 1, Beijing 100084, China
Bin Wang: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Center for Earth System Science, and Joint Center for Global Change Studies (JCGCS), Tsinghua University, Room S813, MengMinwei Science Building, Qinghuayuan 1, Beijing 100084, China
Yong Luo: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Center for Earth System Science, and Joint Center for Global Change Studies (JCGCS), Tsinghua University, Room S813, MengMinwei Science Building, Qinghuayuan 1, Beijing 100084, China
Wenyu Huang: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Center for Earth System Science, and Joint Center for Global Change Studies (JCGCS), Tsinghua University, Room S813, MengMinwei Science Building, Qinghuayuan 1, Beijing 100084, China
Jianbin Huang: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Center for Earth System Science, and Joint Center for Global Change Studies (JCGCS), Tsinghua University, Room S813, MengMinwei Science Building, Qinghuayuan 1, Beijing 100084, China
Lei Wang: Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences
Lide Tian: Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences
Yiran Peng: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Center for Earth System Science, and Joint Center for Global Change Studies (JCGCS), Tsinghua University, Room S813, MengMinwei Science Building, Qinghuayuan 1, Beijing 100084, China
Fanghua Xu: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Center for Earth System Science, and Joint Center for Global Change Studies (JCGCS), Tsinghua University, Room S813, MengMinwei Science Building, Qinghuayuan 1, Beijing 100084, China

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Despite the importance of precipitation and moisture transport over the Tibetan Plateau for glacier mass balance, river runoff and local ecology, changes in these quantities remain highly uncertain and poorly understood. Here we use observational data and model simulations to explore the close relationship between summer rainfall variability over the southwestern Tibetan Plateau (SWTP) and that over central-eastern India (CEI), which exists despite the separation of these two regions by the Himalayas. We show that this relationship is maintained primarily by ‘up-and-over’ moisture transport, in which hydrometeors and moisture are lifted by convective storms over CEI and the Himalayan foothills and then swept over the SWTP by the mid-tropospheric circulation, rather than by upslope flow over the Himalayas. Sensitivity simulations confirm the importance of up-and-over transport at event scales, and an objective storm classification indicates that this pathway accounts for approximately half of total summer rainfall over the SWTP.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10925

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