Warming amplification with both altitude and latitude in the Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

Many studies have examined elevation‐dependent warming in mountain regions of the world, yet little attempt has been undertaken to examine the relationship of the observed warming with both altitude and latitude on a regional scale. Here, based on the mean temperature series (1961–2015) of 105 stations in the Tibetan Plateau, the signals of warming amplification with these two factors are quantified using four groups of methods. The results, highly consistent for the different methods, confirm that the warming for the Tibetan Plateau is not only elevation‐dependent, but also latitude‐dependent, and the magnitude of altitudinal amplification trend is two orders of magnitude larger than that of latitudinal amplification trend on the annual and seasonal scales over the period 1961–2015. The annual warming is amplified by 0.066°C 10 year−1·km−1 of altitude and 0.016 × 10−2°C 10 year−1·km−1 of latitude (or 0.018°C 10 year−1·degree−1 of latitude), with the highest altitudinal (latitudinal) amplification in winter (autumn), followed by autumn (winter) and the lowest in spring and summer. Meanwhile, the estimates of altitude and latitude components of the regional warming shows that the contribution of latitude to the regional warming is larger than that of altitude on the annual scale and for all seasons excepting summer, due primarily to the much larger range of latitude than the range of altitude covered by all the stations used. Moreover, analysis of the number of snow cover days demonstrates that the snow albedo feedback has played a significant role in enhancing the warming in the Tibetan Plateau during the recent sub‐period 1996–2015, due to the decrease of snow cover days in the spring, autumn and winter seasons. These results highlight an integrated picture of Tibetan Plateau warming amplification, and a clear snow albedo feedback effect on the regional amplification, allowing better investigation of impacts and mechanisms.

Three-Dimensional Dynamic Variations of Ground/Air Surface Temperatures and Their Correlation with Large-Scale Circulation Indexes in Southwest China (1980–2019)

“…The result indicates that GST and SAT exhibit elevation-dependent variation on the annual timescale. The warming gradient of SATm is 0.012 °C/(year•km), which is similar to the warming gradient of 0.014 °C/(year•km) found on the Tibetan Plateau [67]. In this study, the fastest warming is detected in HDM, whereas Tao et al reported that the fastest elevation-dependent climatic warming was in YGP [66].…”

“…Therefore, we discarded data from any station that had missing values for a period longer than five consecutive days. Ultimately, data from 368 out of the original 400 stations (67,182, and 119 stations in HDM, YGP, and SCB) were selected for use in this study. Any further gaps in the data set were filled by applying linear regression between the elevation and data from surrounding stations that were within a 50 km diameter circle centered on the target meteorological station.…”

Polar amplification comparison among Earth’s three poles under different socioeconomic scenarios from CMIP6 surface air temperature

“…The Third Pole amplification continues to exist in CMIP6, and becomes stronger in the higher forcing scenario. Altitude and latitude both contribute to the warming of the Third Pole, and the snow albedo feedback also plays an important role in the Third Pole warming amplification 70 . In addition, the enhancement of downward clearsky longwave radiative fluxes and surface albedo feedback also promote the accelerated warming 71 .…”

Understanding the Diversity of CMIP6 Models in the Projection of Precipitation Over Tibetan Plateau

“…Precipitation changes have profound impact on surrounding water cycle, directly and indirectly influencing local and downstream societal activities of millions of people and ecosystems (Duan et al., 2017; He et al., 2019; Ma et al., 2017; Z. Wang et al., 2023; Xie & Wang, 2021). Thus, understanding precipitation response to global warming is essential for policy‐makers to tackle climate change in this climate‐sensitive region, manifested as faster surface warming than the global average and the associated threats to ecosystem health and human water security (F. Chen et al., 2021; Hu et al., 2023; Q. Wang et al., 2022; Yao et al., 2022).…”