The Influence of The Tibetan Plateau Heating on Spatial and Temporal Distribution of air pollutions in China

Abstract:

The effect of the Tibetan Plateau heating will have an important impact on its surroundings and even the global climate. The previous studies mainly focused on the climatic characteristics and interannual variability of the Tibetan Plateau heating and its influence on atmospheric circulation, monsoon, water cycle and ENSO. Does the Tibetan Plateau heating affect the spatial and temporal distribution of aerosols in China? What are the mechanisms of influence? The temporal-spatial variations of Tibetan Plateau heating from 1980 to 2020 and its impacts on the spatial distributions of air pollutions in China was investigated based on CMIP6 and observations. The results showed that the Tibetan Plateau heating has a significant influence on spatial and temporal distribution of aerosols in different seasons in China. In summer, when the Tibetan Plateau heating is high, the strong South Asian high, the weakness of westerly wind over northern TP, acceleration of westerly wind over southern TP, and eastward shift of East Asia major trough provided favorable meteorological conditions for pollutions diffusion in the eastern China. With the influence of westerly wind, the high centers of aerosols are mainly concentrated in the northeast of China. In winter, when cool sources over the Tibetan Plateau is strong, there is an obvious low-pressure system over the Tibetan Plateau. The westerly wind is weak, and aerosols in the north of China is not easy to diffuse. The circulation situation is opposite when cool sources over the Tibetan Plateau is weak, the aerosols in the north of China are easy to transport to the eastern China. These two circulation modes are possibly associated with the low-level meridional temperature anomaly over East Asia, which modulates the upper level atmospheric circulation through the transient eddy feedback.