Time‐lagged effects of spring Tibetan Plateau soil moisture on the monsoon over China in early summer

The objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of initial soil moisture in the Tibetan Plateau (ISMTP) during the spring period on the local and regional climate in subsequent months. Numerical experiments with different ISMTP are made from 1 April to 30 June for the year 1998 using a regional climate model. This was a wet year with anomalously high summer precipitation over China. The same experiments have also been done for the year 1995, which was a normal year with respect to the summer rainfall over China. In both years, the snow amount over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) was higher than normal in the preceding winter/spring. The results of the experiments indicated that an increase in the ISMTP may lead to decreases in the air temperature, vertical velocity, and surface heating over the TP in June. In addition to the local effects, an increase in the ISMTP may also lead to modifications of the climate in some remote regions in early summer, such as an increase in the amount of monsoon precipitation over the mid to lower reaches of the Yangtze River region in eastern China and a decrease over the south China region. These precipitation differences due to the changes in ISMTP are consistent with those due to anomalous snow cover over the TP in winter or spring. Physically, the Tibetan High is weakened with an increase in ISMTP, which leads to a change in the strength of the Asian summer monsoon. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society

[1]  Miller,et al.  The Anomalous Rainfall over the United States during July 1993: Sensitivity to Land Surface Parameterization and Soil Moisture Anomalies , 1996 .

[2]  H. Hsu,et al.  Relationship between the Tibetan Plateau heating and East Asian summer monsoon rainfall , 2003 .

[3]  A. Robock,et al.  Scales of temporal and spatial variability of midlatitude soil moisture , 1996 .

[4]  Randal D. Koster,et al.  Soil Moisture Memory in Climate Models , 2001 .

[5]  Ann Henderson-Sellers,et al.  Biosphere-atmosphere transfer scheme(BATS) version 1e as coupled to the NCAR community climate model , 1993 .

[6]  F. Giorgi,et al.  Development of a Second-Generation Regional Climate Model (RegCM2). Part II: Convective Processes and Assimilation of Lateral Boundary Conditions , 1993 .

[7]  S. Seneviratne,et al.  Land–atmosphere coupling and climate change in Europe , 2006, Nature.

[8]  Guoxiong Wu,et al.  Tibetan Plateau Forcing and the Timing of the Monsoon Onset over South Asia and the South China Sea , 1998 .

[9]  R. Pielke,et al.  Seasonal weather prediction as an initial value problem , 1999 .

[10]  A. Robock,et al.  Temporal and spatial scales of observed soil moisture variations in the extratropics , 2000 .

[11]  Mojib Latif,et al.  The Effect of Eurasian Snow Cover on Regional and Global Climate Variations , 1989 .

[12]  Jeremy S. Pal,et al.  Pathways Relating Soil Moisture Conditions to Future Summer Rainfall within a Model of the Land-Atmosphere System , 2001 .

[13]  J. Chan,et al.  Effects of surface heating over Indochina and India landmasses on the summer monsoon over South China , 2006 .

[14]  D. Lüthi,et al.  The Soil-Precipitation Feedback: A Process Study with a Regional Climate Model , 1999 .

[15]  Bin Wang.  The Development Mechanism for Tibetan Plateau Warm Vortices , 1987 .

[16]  J. Chan,et al.  First Transition of the Asian Summer Monsoon in 1998 and the effect of the Tibet-Tropical Indian Ocean Thermal Contrast , 2001 .

[17]  Y. Kuo,et al.  Description of the Penn State/NCAR Mesoscale Model: Version 4 (MM4) , 1987 .

[18]  Tetsuzo Yasunari,et al.  Local and Remote Responses to Excessive Snow Mass over Eurasia Appearing in the Northern Spring and Summer Climate A Study with the MRI * GCM , 1991 .

[19]  Kenji Tanaka,et al.  Surface Energy Budget at Amdo on the Tibetan Plateau using GAME/Tibet IOP98 Data. , 2001 .

[20]  F. Giorgi,et al.  Development of a Second-Generation Regional Climate Model (RegCM2). Part I: Boundary-Layer and Radiative Transfer Processes , 1993 .

[21]  Tong Wu,et al.  The Relation between the Tibetan Winter Snow and the Asian Summer Monsoon and Rainfall: An Observational Investigation. , 2003 .

[22]  J. Chan,et al.  Design of a Regional Climate Model for the Simulation of South China Summer Monsoon Rainfall , 2004 .

[23]  Bin Wang,et al.  Decadal Change of the Spring Snow Depth over the Tibetan Plateau: The Associated Circulation and Influence on the East Asian Summer Monsoon* , 2004 .

[24]  Elfatih A. B. Eltahir,et al.  A Soil Moisture–Rainfall Feedback Mechanism: 1. Theory and observations , 1998 .

[25]  I. Simmonds,et al.  Atmospheric Water Vapor Flux and Its Association with Rainfall over China in Summer , 1999 .

[26]  R. Anthes.  A Cumulus Parameterization Scheme Utilizing a One-Dimensional Cloud Model , 1977 .

[27]  Chengfeng Li,et al.  Mechanism of Heating and the Boundary Layer over the Tibetan Plateau , 1994 .

[28]  Chengfeng Li,et al.  Seasonal Heating of the Tibetan Plateau and Its Effects on the Evolution of the Asian Summer Monsoon , 1992 .

[29]  Yanyan Zhang,et al.  Responses of China's summer monsoon climate to snow anomaly over the Tibetan Plateau , 2003 .

[30]  H. F. Blanford.  II. On the connexion of the Himalaya snowfall with dry winds and seasons of drought in India , 1884, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.

[31]  I. Orlanski,et al.  Study of a Heavy Rain Vortex Formed over the Eastern Flank of the Tibetan Plateau , 1987 .

[32]  Pedro Viterbo,et al.  The land surface‐atmosphere interaction: A review based on observational and global modeling perspectives , 1996 .

[33]  Randal D. Koster,et al.  Soil Moisture Memory in AGCM Simulations: Analysis of Global Land–Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (GLACE) Data , 2004 .

[34]  Yihui Ding,et al.  Observational Evidence of the Influence of the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau on the Occurrence of Heavy Rain and Severe Convective Storms in China , 1981 .

[35]  J. Shukla,et al.  Influence of Land-Surface Evapotranspiration on the Earth's Climate , 1982, Science.