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A study on the water vapor transport trend and water vapor source of the Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

The climatological characteristics of water vapor transport over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) were investigated in this study by using the ERA-interim and JRA55 monthly reanalysis dataset. The trends of water vapor budget and water vapor sources during the past 40 years were also revealed. The analyses show that the TP is a water vapor convergence area, where the convergence was enhanced from 1979 to 2018. In addition, the convergence is much stronger in JJA, with a linear trend that is twice the annual average trend. The climatological water vapor sources over the TP were identified mainly at the southern and western boundaries, with the vapor sources at the southern boundaries originating from the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal and the vapor sources at the western boundary being transported by mid-latitude westerlies. The TP is a moisture sink at a climatological mean, with an annual average net water vapor flux of 11.86 × 106kg ∙ s−1. Water vapor transport is much stronger in JJA than in other times of the year, and the net water vapor flux is 29.60 × 106kg ∙ s−1. The net water vapor flux in the TP increased with a linear trend of 0.12×106kg ∙ s−1 ∙ year−1 (α = 0.01), while the increase in the flux was more significant in JJA than in other times of the year with a linear trend of 0.30 ×106kg ∙ s−1 ∙ year−1 (α = 0.01). Detailed features in the water vapor flux and transport changes across the TP’s four boundaries were explored by simulating backward trajectories with a Lagrangian trajectory model (hybrid single-particle Lagrangian integrated trajectory model, HYSPLIT). In the study period, the water vapor contribution rate of western channel is increased. However, the Southern channel’s water vapor contribution decreased.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for the providing the HYSPLIT model; the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) for providing the ERA-interim reanalysis datasets.

Funding

This research was jointly funded by the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA20060101), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41875031, 91837208), the Chinese Academy of Sciences Basic Frontier Science Research Program from 0 to 1 Original Innovation Project (Grant No. ZDBS-LY-DQC005-01), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) Program (Grant No. 2019QZKK0103), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. QYZDJ-SSW-DQC019), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41522501, 41275028), and CLIMATE-TPE (ID 32070) in the framework of the ESA-MOST Dragon 4 Programme.

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Author notes

  1. Kepiao Xu and Lei Zhong contributed equally to this study and shared first authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Kepiao Xu, Lei Zhong, Mijun Zou & Ziyu Huang

  2. CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, USTC, Hefei, China

    Lei Zhong

  3. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Climate Change, Nanjing, China

    Lei Zhong

  4. Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China

    Yaoming Ma

  5. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yaoming Ma

  6. University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China

    Yaoming Ma

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  1. Kepiao Xu
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Correspondence to Lei Zhong.

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Xu, K., Zhong, L., Ma, Y. et al. A study on the water vapor transport trend and water vapor source of the Tibetan Plateau. Theor Appl Climatol 140, 1031–1042 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-020-03142-2

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