Evolution mechanisms, impacts, and variations of the vortices originated from the Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

Tibetan Plateau (TP) is the highest plateau in the world and the headwater region for many great rivers. Precipitation over the TP influences both local and downstream water resources. Tibetan Plateau vortices (TPVs) are important rainfall triggers generated over the TP, which significantly affect downstream precipitation when moving off the TP. Research on TPVs is conducive to understanding the precipitation variations and predictions over the TP and in downstream regions. Here, recent progress in studies of TPVs is reviewed, in which the TPV evolution and eastward-moving mechanisms, impacts, and variations at different timescales, are particularly concerned. Interaction among large-scale circulations, TPV winds, and heating field determines the evolution of TPVs, with the leading factors being different in different stages. Most of the intense rainfall over the eastern TP and its eastern flank is caused by TPVs, and TPVs contribute more than 40% of the total summer precipitation and more than 50% of the precipitation over the northern TP in June. TPVs are demonstrated greatly affecting the downstream weather systems-southwest vortices, and the underlying mechanism is clarified. Additionally, in the warming context, TPVs are responsible for the north-wetting and south-drying variation pattern on the TP in recent decades. TPVs present distinctive diurnal, intraseasonal, and interannual variations, and have distinguishing trends over the northern and southern TP. Despite of great achieved progress, effect of topography and land surface conditions on TPVs, variations in TPVs and the related precipitation under the effects of climate changes, as well as the techniques for identifying TPVs based on multiple observational data, are challenges worth further pursuing in future.