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Effects of the Indian summer monsoon on the cloud characteristics over the Eastern Tibetan Plateau: a simulation study

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Abstract

As one of important large-scale systems in south Asia, the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) can affect the moisture budget and cloud processes over the Tibetan Plateau (TP). The influneces of ISM on cloud and precipitation of the Eastern TP (ETP) are discussed via a cloud-resolving model. The outbreak of ISM can activate the moisture transport between TP and the southern ocean in May, which reaches its annual most active period in July. The simulation results show that, compared to a normal ISM year, the moisture transport is intensified in pre-summer and is weakened in a strong ISM year, leading to more pre-summer deep clouds and rainfall. However, a weak ISM year exhibits weak pre-summer moisture transport and active summer moisture transport, resulting in few pre-summer deep clouds and rainfall. The summer moderate cloud cells are reduced in the strong ISM year while are promoted in the weak ISM year, taking responsibility for the summer precipitation variations. The ETP daily maximum precipitation appears at around 21:00 LST and increases after mid-April, reaches its maximum in summer. The model also suggests that the ETP warm season precipitation variation in the strong ISM year is closely related to deep convective cloud (DCC) properties (e.g. frequency and cloud water content). However, deep clouds (cloud depth > 4.0 km) rather than DCC contribute more to the precipitation diurnal variations during June and July in the weak ISM year.

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Data availability

ERA5 and ERA-Interim reanalysis datasets are accessed from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) at https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu. TRMM precipitation products can be accessed from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via https://gpm.nasa.gov/data. CERES data can be accessed via https://ceres.larc.nasa.gov/data/. An application of CN05 data can request permission via https://ccrc.iap.ac.cn/resource/detail?id=228. The model output can be requested via email of the corresponding author (jhchen@nuist.edu.cn).

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Funding

Author J. C. is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2023YFC3007504), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) program (2019QZKK0105), National Science Foundation of China (42075067), and the Open Research Program of the State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather (Grant Nos. 2023LASW-B25).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collaborative Innovation Center On Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, China Meteorological Administration Aerosol-Cloud and Precipitation Key Laboratory, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Kai Yang, Jinghua Chen, Yan Yin, Tianliang Zhao & Chunsong Lu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, 10081, China

    Jinghua Chen

  3. Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA

    Xiaoqing Wu

  4. College of Ocean and Meteorology, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, 524088, China

    Liping Deng

  5. The Penta Essential Meteo&Environ Acadmy (PEMA), Nanjing, 210000, China

    Hui Ding

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  1. Kai Yang
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  2. Jinghua Chen
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  3. Xiaoqing Wu
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  4. Yan Yin
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Model simulation, data collection and analysis were performed by Jinghua Chen and Kai Yang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Kai Yang and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jinghua Chen.

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Yang, K., Chen, J., Wu, X. et al. Effects of the Indian summer monsoon on the cloud characteristics over the Eastern Tibetan Plateau: a simulation study. Clim Dyn (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-024-07219-w

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