The Asian summer monsoon affects more than sixty percent of the world's population; understanding its controlling factors is becoming increasingly important due to the expanding human influence on the environment and climate and the need to adapt to global climate change. Various mechanisms have been suggested; however, an overarching paradigm delineating the dominant factors for its generation and strength remains debated. Here we use observation data and numerical experiments to demonstrates that the Asian summer monsoon systems are controlled mainly by thermal forcing whereas large-scale orographically mechanical forcing is not essential: the South Asian monsoon south of 20°N by land–sea thermal contrast, its northern part by the thermal forcing of the Iranian Plateau, and the East Asian monsoon and the eastern part of the South Asian monsoon by the thermal forcing of the Tibetan Plateau.

Defining the intensity of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) has been extremely controversial. This paper elaborates on the meanings of 25 existing EASM indices in terms of two observed major modes of interannual variation in the precipitation and circulation anomalies for the 1979-2006 period. The existing indices can be classified into five categories: the east-west thermal contrast, north-south thermal contrast, shear vorticity of zonal winds, southwesterly monsoon, and South China Sea monsoon. The last four types of indices reflect various aspects of the leading mode of interannual variability of the EASM rainfall and circulations, which correspond to the decaying El Niño, while the first category reflects the second mode that corresponds to the developing El Niño.The authors recommend that the EASM strength can be represented by the principal component of the leading mode of the interannual variability, which provides a unified index for the majority of the existing indices. This new index is extremely robust, captures a large portion (50%) of the total variance of the precipitation and three-dimensional circulation, and has unique advantages over all the existing indices. The authors also recommend a simple index, the reversed Wang and Fan index, which is nearly identical to the leading principal component of the EASM and greatly facilitates real-time monitoring.The proposed index highlights the significance of the mei-yu/baiu/changma rainfall in gauging the strength of the EASM. The mei-yu, which is produced in the primary rain-bearing system, the East Asian (EA) subtropical front, better represents the variability of the EASM circulation system. This new index reverses the traditional Chinese meaning of a strong EASM, which corresponds to a deficient mei-yu that is associated with an abnormal northward extension of southerly over northern China. The new definition is consistent with the meaning used in other monsoon regions worldwide, where abundant rainfall within the major local rain-bearing monsoon system is considered to be a strong monsoon.

The increasing severity of droughts/floods and worsening air quality from increasing aerosols in Asia monsoon regions are the two gravest threats facing over 60% of the world population living in Asian monsoon regions. These dual threats have fueled a large body of research in the last decade on the roles of aerosols in impacting Asian monsoon weather and climate. This paper provides a comprehensive review of studies on Asian aerosols, monsoons, and their interactions. The Asian monsoon region is a primary source of emissions of diverse species of aerosols from both anthropogenic and natural origins. The distributions of aerosol loading are strongly influenced by distinct weather and climatic regimes, which are, in turn, modulated by aerosol effects. On a continental scale, aerosols reduce surface insolation and weaken the land-ocean thermal contrast, thus inhibiting the development of monsoons. Locally, aerosol radiative effects alter the thermodynamic stability and convective potential of the lower atmosphere leading to reduced temperatures, increased atmospheric stability, and weakened wind and atmospheric circulations. The atmospheric thermodynamic state, which determines the formation of clouds, convection, and precipitation, may also be altered by aerosols serving as cloud condensation nuclei or ice nuclei. Absorbing aerosols such as black carbon and desert dust in Asian monsoon regions may also induce dynamical feedback processes, leading to a strengthening of the early monsoon and affecting the subsequent evolution of the monsoon. Many mechanisms have been put forth regarding how aerosols modulate the amplitude, frequency, intensity, and phase of different monsoon climate variables. A wide range of theoretical, observational, and modeling findings on the Asian monsoon, aerosols, and their interactions are synthesized. A new paradigm is proposed on investigating aerosol-monsoon interactions, in which natural aerosols such as desert dust, black carbon from biomass burning, and biogenic aerosols from vegetation are considered integral components of an intrinsic aerosol-monsoon climate system, subject to external forcing of global warming, anthropogenic aerosols, and land use and change. Future research on aerosol-monsoon interactions calls for an integrated approach and international collaborations based on long-term sustained observations, process measurements, and improved models, as well as using observations to constrain model simulations and projections.

[1] Observational evidence presented here indicates that the surface temperatures on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) have increased by about 1.8°C over the past 50 years. The precipitation pattern that is projected as a result of this warming resembles the leading pattern of precipitation variations in East Asia (EA). Numerical experiments with atmospheric general circulation models show that atmospheric heating induced by the rising TP temperatures can enhance East Asian subtropical frontal rainfall. The mechanism of the linkage is found to be through two distinct Rossby wave trains and the isentropic uplift to the east of the TP, which deform the western Pacific Subtropical High and enhance moisture convergence toward the EA subtropical front. The model calculations suggest that the past changes in TP temperatures and EA summer rainfall may be linked, and that projected future increases in TP temperatures may lead to further enhanced summer frontal rainfall in EA region.

Observations were employed to study the thermal characteristics of the Tibetan Plateau and its neighboring regions, and their impacts on the onset of the Asian monsoon in 1989. Special attention was paid to the diagnosis of the temporal and spatial distributions of surface sensible and latent heat fluxes. Results show that the whole procedure of the outbreak of the Asian monsoon onset is composed of three consequential stages. The first is the monsoon onset over the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal (BOB) in early May. It is followed by the onset of the East Asian monsoon over the South China Sea (SCS) by 20 May, then the onset of the South Asian monsoon over India by 10 June. It was shown that the onset of the BOB monsoon is directly linked to the thermal as well as mechanical forcing of the Tibetan Plateau. It then generates a favorable environment for the SCS monsoon onset. Afterward, as the whole flow pattern in tropical Asia shifts westward, the onset of the South Asian monsoon occurs. Finally, the timing of the onset of the Asian monsoon in 1989 was explored. It was shown that the onset of the Asian monsoon occurs when the warm or rising phase of different low-frequency oscillations reach the ''East Asian monsoon area'' (EAMA) concurrently. These include the warm phase of the eastward propagating twoto three-week oscillation (TTO) of the upper-layer temperature in middle latitudes, the rising phase of the northward propagating Madden-Julian oscillation of the southern tropical divergence, and the rising phase of the westward propagating TTO of the western Pacific divergence. It was concluded that the timing of the Asian monsoon onset is determined when the favorable phases of different low-frequency oscillations are locked over the EAMA.

This paper reviews progress in the study of Tibetan Plateau (TP) climate dynamics over the past decade. Several theoretical frameworks, including thermal adaptation and the TP sensible heat (SH) driving air-pump, have been developed to identify the mechanisms responsible for the circulation anomaly produced by thermal forcing of the TP. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the thermal effects of large-scale orography, including the Tibetan and Iranian Plateaus (TIP), are crucial for the formation of the East Asian and South Asian summer monsoons (SASM) because the surface SH of the TIP is the major driver of the water vapor transport required for the genesis of the north branch of the SASM. The large-scale orography of the TP affects the Asian climate through thermal forcing in spring and summer, and mechanical forcing in winter. The TP forcing can also influence the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) onset over the Bay of Bengal (BOB) by enhancing the BOB warm pool at the surface and by modulating the South Asian High (SAH) in the upper troposphere. On intra-seasonal timescales, the TP thermal forcing significantly modulates spring rainfall in southern China and generates the biweekly oscillation of the SAH in summer. Despite climate warming, the atmospheric heat source over the TP, particularly the spring SH, exhibits a clear weakening trend from the 1980s to 2000s. This weakening of the spring SH contributed to the anomalous ‘dry in the north’ and ‘wet in the south’ rainfall pattern observed over East China. Also discussed are challenges to further understanding the mechanism of TP forcing on the multi-scale variability of the ASM.

No abstract

SummaryIn this paper, the thermal features of the atmosphere over the Tibetan Plateau in summer and their effects on the general circulation are reviewed. Some recent research results are reported. It is shown that the Plateau acts as a heat source in summer. Particularly the strong surface heating makes the air stratification very unstable and produces strong near-surface convergence and positive vorticity and upper layer divergence and negative vorticity. Intense convective activity generated thereby not only maintains such particular large-scale circulation pattern 1 While I visited USA in the summer of this year (97) the sad news of the death of Professor Riehl came to me. This was a great shock to me. Herb was my esteemed colleague and friend. During the later half of my stay at the University of Chicago in the 40s I spent most of the time with Herb and worked with him. Every weak we have several discussion through which I learnt a lot from him. I cannot forget our discussions in one morning. This discussion helped me to formulate a paper "The circulation of the high troposphere over China in the winter of 1945 -1946 " which was published in Tellus (1950. This paper demonstrated for the first time the existence of a strong jet stream around the southern periphery of Tibetan Plateau. This jet stream is usually called southern jet stream in China, because there is also a northern one to the north of the Tibetan Plateau, These two jet streams merge into one downstream of the plateau forming the strongest jet stream in the northern hemisphere. This Tellus paper and a paper by Bolin, which also appeared in Tellus (1950), stimulated my interest in studying the role of the Tibetan Plateau in the general circulation for several decades. Because of Herb's stimulation, a colleague of mine and I write this review article in the volume in memorizing Herb's big contribution to meteorology.2Because of the adoption of Pinyin in the 1960s, Yeh T. C. became Ye D.-Z over the Plateau, but also transports large amounts of sensible heat, moisture, chemical pollutants, as well as air with low ozone concentration from near-surface layers to upper layers. A minimum centre of total ozone concentration and a huge upper layer anticyclone with a warm and moist core are thus observed over the Plateau in summer. The strong divergent flow and anticyclonic vorticity source in the upper atmosphere have a strong influence on the general circulation over the world via meridional as well as longitudinal circulations, and energy dispersion on a spherical surface. It is shown that the surface sensible heating of the Plateau is essential for the occurrence of the abrupt seasonal change of the general circulation there, and for the persistent maintenance of the Asian monsoon. It is also reported that the elevated heating of the Tibetan Plateau together with its mechanical forcing cause the early onset of the Asian monsoon to happen over the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, which then generates a favorable circulation background for the monsoon...