Topographical and Thermal Forcing in Favorable Circulation Pattern to Early Spring Precipitation over the Southeastern Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

During the boreal spring (March–May), the precipitation that occurs from March over the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (TP) can account for 20–40% of the total annual amount. The origin of this phenomenon has not been clearly understood from a climatological perspective. In this study, the role of topographical and thermal forcing on the precipitation over the southeastern TP in early spring (March) was investigated through sensitivity numerical simulations based on general circulation model. The simulated results show the favorable circulation and static stability to early spring precipitation over the southeastern TP when the model is simultaneously forced by realistic topography, zonal symmetric radiative equilibrium temperature, and diabatic heating over the TP and its surrounding areas. The quasi-stationary wave pattern over the Eurasian continent forced by realistic and TP topographical forcing leads to prolonged low pressure and intensified zonal winds over the southeastern TP due to quasi-steady wave activities. Thermal forcing experiments reveals that sensible heating over the southeastern TP not only strengthens the cyclonic circulation, ascending motion and statically unstable over the southeastern TP through thermal adaptation and the Sverdrup balance, but also triggers an anticyclone at upper tropospheric level extending from north of the Bay of Bengal to the eastern TP, which further favors precipitation over the southeastern TP. This work will provide useful background information for spring climate prediction over the TP.

Keywords

• topographic and thermal forcing
• Tibetan Plateau
• atmospheric circulation
• early spring
• precipitation