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Possible widths of Indian summer monsoon trajectories in Tibetan Plateau revealed by the direction of maximum summer precipitation decreases in recent decades

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Abstract

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) affects its surrounding regions through thermal and dynamic processes. Hydrological cycles in TP are experiencing dramatic changes under the warming climate. As one of the most important circulations, the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) affects precipitation changes and therefore has a major effect on TP water resources. In this paper, the widths of ISM are defined as extents perpendicular to the moisture trajectories. They were calculated using ground-based measurements and verified with reanalysis datasets. The directions of maximum summer precipitation decreases (Dirmin) were selected using the cluster proxy of directions of daily maximum winds (Wd) and the slope aspects derived from digital elevation models (DEMs) at various resolutions. The major findings were that (1) similar southwestern Dirmin were found based on the Wd and the slope aspects derived from DEMs with resolutions of 100 and 200 km; (2) Reanalysis data from China Meteorological Forcing Dataset verified that a high percentage (~ 90%) of cells showing precipitation decreases also had slope aspects (derived from 100- and 200-km resolution DEMs) in the range of 112.5°–247.5°; (3) The possible widths of ISM trajectories in TP were approximately 100–200 km.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 42071090, 41988101, 41701080, 91747201, 41771043, 41530748, 41571033) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA19070301 and XDA20060202). We thank the China Meteorological Administration (CMA, http://cdc.cma.gov.cn/) for access to the meteorological station data used in this analysis. The China Meteorological Forcing Dataset (CMFD) was provided by the National Tibetan Plateau Data Center (http://data.tpdc.ac.cn). The data that support the findings of this study are available from the CMA (http://data.cma.cn/) and the CMFD (http://data.tpdc.ac.cn). We sincerely thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their hard work on the improvement of our manuscript. We would also like to express our sincere thanks to Edward A Derbyshire, who helped us improve the English expressions.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 42071090, 41988101, 41701080, 91747201, 41771043, 41530748, 41571033) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA19070301 and XDA20060202).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China

    Xiaoyu Guo, Lei Wang & Jing Zhou

  2. Motuo Observation and Research Center for Earth Landscape and Earth Systems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Xiaoyu Guo

  3. Institute of International Rivers and Eco-Security, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500, China

    Lide Tian

  4. School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Yuanwei Wang

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by XG, LW and LT. The first draft of the manuscript was written by XG and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiaoyu Guo.

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Guo, X., Wang, L., Tian, L. et al. Possible widths of Indian summer monsoon trajectories in Tibetan Plateau revealed by the direction of maximum summer precipitation decreases in recent decades. Clim Dyn 60, 2315–2330 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06446-3

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