Interannual Variability of Precipitation Recycle Ratio Over the Tibetan Plateau

Zhao, Yin; Zhou, Tianjun

doi:10.1029/2020jd033733

Cited by 46 publications

(53 citation statements)

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“…A bulk model method is used to calculate the precipitation recycle ratio over the TP (Brubaker et al., 1993; Guo et al., 2018; Zhao & Zhou, 2021). The vertically integrated water vapor transport is:

F = - \int_{p_{surf}}^{p_{top}} {\vec{v}}_{h} q \partial p,

where

{\vec{v}}_{h}

is the horizontal winds (m s −1 ), q is the specific humidity (kg kg −1 ), p surf and p top mean the pressure at the surface and top atmosphere, respectively.…”

Section: Method Model and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Added Value of a Convection Permitting Model in Simulating Atmospheric Water Cycle Over the Asian Water Tower

Zhao

Zhou

et al. 2021

JGR Atmospheres

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The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is known as Asian Water Tower and its atmospheric water cycle has been a lasting challenge to climate modeling community. Here, we compare two sets of the Met Office Unified Model simulations—one is a convection‐parameterized version (large‐scale model; LSM) and the other is a convection‐permitting model (CPM) simulation. The added value of the CPM in terms of atmospheric water cycle process is analyzed, including external moisture transport, fraction of atmospheric water vapor converting to precipitation and the precipitation recycle ratio. Results show that the simulated TP precipitation and evaporation for the summer of 2009 is significantly improved in the CPM. First, the overestimation of atmospheric water cycle by LSM is improved in CPM due to a reasonable representation of the fraction of atmospheric water vapor converting to precipitation. The overestimation of precipitation recycle ratio also indicates the LSM generates excessive convection compared to the CPM and therefore has a larger wet bias over the TP. Second, a better simulation of local precipitation has feedback on the circulation. Compared with the LSM, the less moisture convergence in the CPM is dominated by the stronger outflow through the eastern edge of the TP rather than the weaker inflow, implying the upscale effects of the resolved moist convection on the moisture transport over the TP. Our results imply that the CPM is a useful tool in the reproduction of moisture transport and atmospheric water cycle process over the Asian Water Tower and other regions of the world with complex topography.

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F = - \int_{p_{surf}}^{p_{top}} {\vec{v}}_{h} q \partial p,

where

{\vec{v}}_{h}

is the horizontal winds (m s −1 ), q is the specific humidity (kg kg −1 ), p surf and p top mean the pressure at the surface and top atmosphere, respectively.…”

Section: Method Model and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A bulk model method is used to calculate the precipitation recycle ratio over the TP (Brubaker et al, 1993;Guo et al, 2018;Zhao & Zhou, 2021). The vertically integrated water vapor transport is:…”

Section: Methods To Calculate Precipitation Recycle Ratiomentioning

confidence: 99%

Added Value of a Convection Permitting Model in Simulating Atmospheric Water Cycle Over the Asian Water Tower

Zhao

Zhou

et al. 2021

JGR Atmospheres

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“…Since high summer temperatures may enhance lake surface evaporation and inhibit lake expansion on the one hand, on the other hand, high summer temperatures may enhance regional water vapor recirculation over the ITP. At present, the precipitation recycle ratio over the TP during the summer is ∼23% (Zhao and Zhou, 2021), and large lakes in the TP reshape regional precipitation patterns and also influence precipitation amounts adjacent and downwind of them (Dai et al, 2020a;Dai et al, 2020b). During the early Holocene, enlarged lakes, and elevated summer temperatures would conducive to precipitation recycling within the ITP that helped to maintain lakes in high lake levels.…”

Section: Seasonal Precipitation and Temperature Changes Based On The Trace-21ka Modelmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…According to the modern observations, the increased spring precipitation was due mainly to moisture input from the Eurasian continent (Zhang et al, 2019b;Li et al, 2019). Increased rainfall during the summer season was mostly correlated with intensification of the ISM, while increased autumn precipitation came partially from the prolonged seasonal influence of the ISM and partially from enhanced water vapor recycling over the ITP (Li et al, 2019;Zhao and Zhou, 2021). After the mid-Holocene, the summer and autumn percentage of annual precipitation declined, causing lakes in the ITP to regress as a consequence (Supplementary Figures S4, S5).…”

Section: Holocene Spatial Precipitation Changes In the Inner Tibetan Plateau Based On The Kiel Climate Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lacks of reconstructed precipitation record in central and southwestern ITP where lakes expanded more drastic during the early Holocene, which limit our ability to estimate the contributions of precipitation and melt water to the expansions of lakes in these regions. The discrepancy between pollen-based precipitation changes and KCM model results in ITP, and the expansion of lakes may in one hand due to the amounts of glacier melt water are hard to be estimated that supply the lakes, and in another hand to that pollen assemblages may contain certain portions of long distance transported pollens which introduce uncertainties in the precipitation reconstructions (Zhao et al, 2021). In addition, the response of ecosystem (soil moisture and tree cover) to precipitation variations can lag for several thousand years due to the impacts of winter warming (Cheng et al, 2021).…”

Section: Pollen-based Holocene Precipitation Reconstructions In Inner Tibetan Plateaumentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Driving Forces Underlying Spatiotemporal Lake Extent Changes in the Inner Tibetan Plateau During the Holocene

2021

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The Inner Tibetan Plateau (ITP), the central and western part of the Tibetan Plateau (TP), covers about one-fourth of the entire TP and contains more than 800 endorheic lakes larger than 1 km2. These lakes are important water reservoirs and sensitive to TP climate changes. They regulate regional water circulations, and further influence local ecosystems. Many lakes in ITP are surrounded by conspicuous paleoshorelines indicating much higher past lake levels. Previous studies found that lakes in the western ITP (west of ∼86°E) apparently expanded to higher levels than those to the east during the Holocene high lake level stage, however, there is no in-depth study on the reasons for the spatial differences of high lake levels within the ITP. In this study, we first identify Holocene lake level (or lake extent) changes over the ITP by combining published lake level variation data with our reconstruction of Dagze Co lake level variations. We then investigate spatial differences in the magnitude of lake expansions and explore the underlying forces driving these differences using the transient climate evolution of the last 21 ka (TraCE-21ka) and Kiel Climate Model (KCM) simulation results. We find that lakes in the ITP expanded to their highest levels during the early Holocene when the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) greatly intensified. After the mid-Holocene, lake levels fell as a result of the weakening of the ISM. The early Holocene northward shift of the westerly jet and a positive phase of the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) resulted in the intensification of southwesterly winds on the southwest TP flank. Concurrently, westerly winds over the TP weakened, causing a differential increase in water vapor transport to the ITP with higher precipitation levels in the southwestern ITP and lower levels to the northeast. These wind-driven differential precipitation levels caused lakes in the southwestern ITP to expand to higher levels than those in the central, northern and northeastern ITP. During the early Holocene, expansion of lakes in the northwestern ITP was enhanced by an increase in glacier melt water besides the increased summer rainfall associated with the intensified ISM.

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Fate and changes in moisture evaporated from the Tibetan Plateau (2000-2020)

Zhang

Chen

Tang

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Total evaporation from the vast terrain of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) may strongly influence downwind regions. However, the ultimate fate of this moisture remains unclear. This study tracked and quantified TP-originating moisture. The results show that the TP moisture participation in downwind regions' precipitation is the strongest around the eastern edge of the TP and then weakens gradually toward the east. Consequently, TP moisture in the composition of precipitation over the central-eastern TP is the largest of over 30%. 44.9-46.7% of TP annual evaporation is recycled over the TP, and about 2/3 of the TP evaporation is reprecipitated over terrestrial China. Moisture cycling of TP origin shows strong seasonal variation, with seasonal patterns largely determined by precipitation, evaporation and wind fields. High levels of evaporation and precipitation over the TP in summer maximize local recycling intensity and recycling ratios. Annual precipitation of TP origin increased mainly around the northeastern TP during 2000-2020. This region consumed more than half of the increased TP evaporation. Further analyses showed that changes in reprecipitation of TP origin were consistent with precipitation trends in nearby downwind areas: when intensified TP evaporation meets intensified precipitation, more TP moisture is precipitated out. The model estimated an annual precipitation recycling ratio (PRR) of 26.9-30.8% in forward moisture tracking. However, due to the non-closure issue of the atmospheric moisture balance equation, the annual PRR in backward tracking can be ˜6% lower.

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Interannual Variability of Precipitation Recycle Ratio Over the Tibetan Plateau

Cited by 46 publications

References 53 publications

Added Value of a Convection Permitting Model in Simulating Atmospheric Water Cycle Over the Asian Water Tower

Added Value of a Convection Permitting Model in Simulating Atmospheric Water Cycle Over the Asian Water Tower

The Driving Forces Underlying Spatiotemporal Lake Extent Changes in the Inner Tibetan Plateau During the Holocene

Fate and changes in moisture evaporated from the Tibetan Plateau (2000-2020)

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