Impact of diabatic heating over the Tibetan Plateau on subsidence over northeast Asian arid region

Abstract

The formation mechanism of the arid climate over northeast Asia is investigated by a series of regional climate model experiments. Precipitation there is suppressed by a prominent regional‐scale subsidence during summertime. An experiment without diabatic heating shows very gentle vertical motion there, whereas the subsidence is prominent when diabatic heating by solar radiation is included in the model. Additionally, the other experiments indicate that an artificial heating over the Tibetan Plateau enhances the subsidence over the arid area which is similar to the observed distribution. These results suggest that the thermal effects of the plateau induce the prominent subsidence. The mechanical effects of the topography, such as stationary mountain waves, are not a principal reason for the subsidence nor the arid climate. The stationary Rossby wave driven by the diabatic heating over the plateau tends to propagate northward during boreal summer, since subtropical westerly jet locates north of the plateau.