The Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau has a profound influence on atmospheric circulation patterns on all time and space scales. This report constitutes a short summary of work being performed at the Lanzhou Institute of Plateau Atmospheric Physics of the Academia Sinica. A short discussion of the climatic characteristics of the plateau is followed by a description of the main features of annual and diurnal cycles in pressure and circulation patterns.

The southeastern Tibetan Plateau is one of the predominant summer rainfall regions in the world and is also the crucial water vapor channel of the Asian summer monsoon. The rainfall variability in the region influences not only the local communities but also downstream communities in East Asia. However, previous studies have exhibited large rainfall biases in this region in state‐of‐the‐art climate models. Understanding the observed rainfall variability provides an opportunity to identify the origin of model biases and to lay a foundation for improving model performance. In this study, the interannual variability of the summer precipitation (May–September) over the southeastern Tibetan Plateau was investigated based on National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis monthly mean data from 1979 to 2010. The associated atmospheric circulation anomalies of the southeastern Tibetan Plateau summer precipitation (SET_PR) display a North Atlantic Ocean‐Europe‐Asia teleconnection pattern, indicating a possible role of the Atlantic climate in the SET_PR. Further studies have revealed that the Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies have the greatest influence on the SET_PR via the Rossby wave response, whereas the SST anomalies in the Indo‐Pacific have less of an influence on the SET_PR because their main impacts are confined to the western North Pacific subtropical high and the monsoonal circulation there. This paper also documents the detailed spatial pattern of the atmospheric circulation anomalies associated with the SET_PR and Atlantic SST year‐to‐year variability.

In this study, the relationship between the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) and the Arctic oscillation (AO) and El Niño southern oscillation (ENSO) are reanalysed using long‐term reanalysis data. The AO and ENSO influence the EAWM by means of a significant inter‐decadal oscillation with a periodicity of approximately 60 years. When the linkage between the AO and EAWM is strengthened (weakened), the ENSO has a weakened (strengthened) relationship with the EAWM. The AO and ENSO alternately affect the EAWM for approximately 30 years. Furthermore, an analysis is completed regarding the possible mechanism of the inter‐decadal relationship between the EAWM and ENSO, as well as the AO. Such an inter‐decadal relationship could be due to the phase transition of the Pacific multi‐decadal oscillation (PMO). When the PMO is positive, sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the Bering Strait and Alaska Current region are warmer than average, which results in a decrease in the East Asian trough and an increase in the Aleutian low and northeastern Pacific vertical wave activity flux. In this case, the vertical wave activity flux propagates upward and is reflected in the polar vortex, which significantly strengthens the relationship between the Asia‐Pacific climate and AO. Simultaneously, during the positive phase of the PMO, the increase in the SST in the eastern South Pacific is stronger than in the west, which leads to a weakening of the east–west temperature gradient and southern oscillation. Thus, the relationship between the ENSO and Asia‐Pacific region is significantly weakened and vice versa. The results of this study deepen the understanding of the Asia‐Pacific climate and may improve the inter‐decadal prediction of the Asia‐Pacific regional climate in the future.