Regionally Different Precipitation Trends Over the Tibetan Plateau in the Warming Context: A Perspective of the Tibetan Plateau Vortices

Abstract

AbstractPrecipitation over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) significantly affects both the local ecology and the downstream water resources. In this study, it is found that there exists an increasing precipitation trend over the northern TP but not in the southern TP, which is interpreted from the perspective of the activities of Tibetan Plateau vortices (TPVs). In the context of recent warming over the TP, the increasing rate of genesis frequency of TPVs over the northern TP is remarkably larger than that over the southern TP, which is responsible for different precipitation trends in the northern and southern TP, respectively. That is, the most significant warming over the TP appears in the upper troposphere, which intensifies the 200 hPa westerly jet north of the TP, hereby produces more favorable conditions for the genesis of TPVs over the northern TP than over southern TP, and contributes to regional difference in precipitation trends.