scholarly journals Role and Mechanisms of Black Carbon Affecting Water Vapor Transport to Tibet

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Luo ◽  
Yuzhi Liu ◽  
Qingzhe Zhu ◽  
Yuhan Tang ◽  
Khan Alam

Although some studies reported the impact of black carbon (BC) on the climate over the Tibetan Plateau (TP), the contribution and mechanisms of BC affecting the water vapor transport to Tibet are not fully understood yet. Here, utilizing the satellite observations and reanalysis data, the effects of BC on the climate over the TP and water vapor transport to the Tibet were investigated by the Community Earth System Model (CESM 2.1.0). Due to the addition of BC, a positive net heat forcing (average is 0.39 W/m2) is exerted at the surface, which induces a pronounced warming effect over the TP and consequently intensifies the East Asian Summer monsoon (EASM). However, significant cooling effects in northern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran are induced due to the BC and related feedbacks, which reduces significantly the meridional land–sea thermal contrast and finally weakens the South Asian summer monsoon (SASM). Consequently, the water vapor transport to the south border is decreased due to addition of BC. Moreover, through affecting the atmospheric circulation, the BC could induce an increase in the imported water vapor from the west and east borders of the TP, and an increase outflowing away from the north border of the TP. Overall, due to the BC, the annual mean net importing water vapor over TP is around 271 Gt, which could enhance the precipitation over the TP. The results show that the mean increase in the precipitation over TP is about 0.56 mm/day.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiwansha Mishra ◽  
Dilip Ganguly ◽  
Puneet Sharma

<p>While the monsoon onset is recognized as a rapid, substantial, and sustained increase in rainfall over large parts of south Asia, the withdrawal marks the return to dry conditions. Normally, the south Asian summer monsoon onset occurs around 1<sup>st</sup> June over extreme south of peninsular India, which gradually advances to extreme northwest of India by around 15<sup>th</sup> July. The withdrawal starts from northwest India from around 1st September and from extreme south peninsular India by around 30th September. The determinations of the onset and withdrawal dates of monsoon have great economic significance for this region as they influence many agriculture and water resource management decisions in one of the most highly populated regions of the world. Several studies involving global model simulations have shown that changing aerosol emissions could result in significant changes in the seasonal mean precipitation distribution over India. A few studies also show that presence of absorbing aerosols in the foothills of Himalayas and over the Tibetan plateau could increase the moisture convergence over India thereby causing an advancement and intensification of the monsoon precipitation. However, most of the previous studies, which investigated the impact of anthropogenic emissions on the monsoon, are limited to understanding the impact of various emission changes on the seasonal mean monsoon characteristics. In the present study, we try to understand the sensitivity of the onset and withdrawal period of the south Asian summer monsoon system to changes in anthropogenic emissions using a climate model (CESM1.2). We diagnose the onset and withdrawal of the south Asian monsoon by analyzing the variability in vertically integrated moisture transport (VIMT) over the south Asian region and following the definition of hydrologic onset and withdrawal index (HOWI) defined by Fasullo et al. (2002). We examined the effect of changing emissions anthropogenic aerosol, greenhouse gases and both on the onset and withdrawal of the south Asian summer monsoon system. Our preliminary results suggest that increases in the emissions of aerosols and greenhouse gases from anthropogenic sources from pre-industrial to present day could possibly result in significant delay in the onset and advancement in withdrawal of the south Asian summer monsoon system thereby shortening the length of the monsoon season. More results with greater detail will be presented.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Haiwen Liu ◽  
Jiarui Miao ◽  
Kaijun Wu ◽  
Mengxing Du ◽  
Yuxiang Zhu ◽  
...  

Previous studies indicate that the summer (July-August) rainfall over North China has decreased since the mid-1970s due to the weakening of East Asian summer monsoon (EASM). However, this study firstly discovers the new evidences that the summer rainfall over North China had a significant increasing tendency during 1979–1996; since 1997, this increasing tendency has halted while more summer droughts occurred over North China. One important cause for the halted increasing tendency over North China is the interdecadal decrease of the westerly water vapor transport during 1997–2016 in addition to the weakened EASM. The decrease of the westerly water vapor transport during 1997–2016 was due to the interdecadal warming over Lake Baikal. The interdecadal warming in the upper troposphere at 200 hPa forced the weakening of the upper-level zonal winds since 1997, which resulted in the anomalous descending flow over the north side of North China and the halted precipitation trend in North China.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-54

Abstract It has been suggested that summer rainfall over Central Asia (CA) is significantly correlated with the summer thermal distribution of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and the Indian summer monsoon (ISM). However, relatively few studies have investigated their synergistic effects of different distribution. This study documents the significant correlations between precipitation in CA and the diabatic heating of TP and the ISM based on the results of statistical analysis and numerical simulation. Precipitation in CA is is dominated by two water vapor transport branches from the south which are related to the two primary modes of anomalous diabatic heating distribution related to the TP and ISM precipitation, that is, the “+-” dipole mode in the southeastern TP and the Indian subcontinent (IS), and the “+-+” tripole mode in the southeastern TP, the IS, and southern India. Both modes exhibit obvious mid-latitude Silk Road pattern (SRP) wave trains with cyclone anomalies over CA, but with different transient and stationary eddies over south Asia. The different locations of anomalous anticyclones over India govern two water vapor transport branches to CA, which are from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The water vapor flux climbs while being transported northward and can be transported to CA with the cooperation of cyclonic circulation. The convergent water vapor and ascending motion caused by cyclonic anomalies favor the precipitation in CA. Further analysis corroborates the negative South Indian Ocean Dipole (NSIOD) in February could affect the tripole mode distribution of TP heating and ISM via the atmospheric circulation, water vapor transport and an anomalous Hadley cell circulation. The results indicate a reliable prediction reference for precipitation in CA.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 6967-7018 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Rauthe-Schöch ◽  
A. K. Baker ◽  
T. J. Schuck ◽  
C. A. M. Brenninkmeijer ◽  
A. Zahn ◽  
...  

Abstract. The CARIBIC (Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the Atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container) passenger aircraft observatory performed in situ measurements at 10–12 km altitude in the South Asian summer monsoon anticyclone between June and September 2008. These measurements enable us to investigate this atmospheric region, which so far has mostly been observed from satellites, using the broad suite of trace gases and aerosols measured by CARIBIC. Elevated levels of a range of atmospheric pollutants were recorded e.g. carbon monoxide, total reactive nitrogen oxides, aerosol particles and several volatile organic compounds. The measurements provide detailed information about the chemical composition of air in different parts of the monsoon anticyclone, particularly of ozone precursors. While covering a range of 3500 km inside the monsoon anticyclone, CARIBIC observations show remarkable consistency, i.e. with regular latitudinal patterns of trace gases during the entire monsoon period. Trajectory calculations indicate that these air masses originated mainly from South Asia and Mainland Southeast Asia. Using the CARIBIC trace gas and aerosol measurements in combination with the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART we investigated the characteristics of monsoon outflow and the chemical evolution of air masses during transport. Estimated photochemical ages of the air were found to agree well with transport times from a source region east of 95° E. The photochemical ages of the air in the southern part of the monsoon anticyclone were consistently younger (less than 7 days) and the air masses mostly in an ozone forming chemical regime. In its northern part the air masses were older (up to 13 days) and had unclear ozone formation or destruction potential. Based on analysis of forward trajectories several receptor regions were identified. In addition to predominantly westward transport, we found evidence for efficient transport (within 10 days) to the Pacific and North America, particularly during June and September, and also of cross-tropopause exchange, which was strongest during June and July. Westward transport to Africa and further to the Mediterranean was the main pathway during July.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoning Xie ◽  
Gunnar Myhre ◽  
Xiaodong Liu ◽  
Xinzhou Li ◽  
Zhengguo Shi ◽  
...  

Abstract. Black carbon (BC) aerosols emitted from natural and anthropogenic sources induce positive radiative forcing and global warming, which in turn significantly affect the Asian summer monsoon (ASM). However, many aspects of the BC effect on ASM remain elusive and largely inconsistent among previous studies, which is strongly dependent on different low-level thermal feedbacks over the Asian continent and the surrounding ocean. This study examines the response of ASM to BC forcing in comparison with the effect of doubled greenhouse gases (GHGs) by analyzing the Precipitation Driver Response Model Intercomparison Project (PDRMIP) simulations under an extreme high BC level (10 times modern global BC emissions or concentrations, labeled by BC × 10) from nine global climate models (GCMs). The results show that although BC and GHGs both enhance the ASM precipitation minus evaporation (P–E) (a 13.6 % increase for BC forcing and 12.1 % for GHGs from the nine-model ensemble, respectively), there exists a much larger uncertainty in changes in ASM P–E induced by BC than by GHGs. The summer P–E is increased by 7.7 % to 15.3 % due to these two forcings over three sub-regions including East Asian, South Asian, and western North Pacific monsoon regions. Further analysis of moisture budget reveals distinct mechanisms controlling the increases in ASM P–E induced by BC and GHGs. The change in ASM P–E by BC is dominated by the dynamic effect due to the enhanced large-scale monsoon circulation, whereas the GHG-induced change is dominated by the thermodynamic effect through increasing atmospheric water vapor. Radiative forcing of BC significantly increases the upper-level atmospheric temperature over the Asian region to enhance the upper-level meridional land-sea thermal gradient (MLOTG), resulting in a northward shift of the upper-level subtropical westerly jet and an enhancement of the low-level monsoon circulation; whereas radiative forcing of GHGs significantly increases the tropical upper-level temperature, which reduces the upper-level MLOTG and suppresses the low-level monsoonal circulation. Hence, our results indicate a different mechanism of BC climate effects under the extreme high BC level, that BC forcing significantly enhances the upper-level atmospheric temperature over the Asian region, determining ASM changes, instead of low-level thermal feedbacks as indicated by previous studies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 4476-4484
Author(s):  
Ding Ma ◽  
Adam H. Sobel ◽  
Zhiming Kuang ◽  
Martin S. Singh ◽  
Ji Nie

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