The Effect of ENSO on Tibetan Plateau Snow Depth: A Stationary Wave Teleconnection Mechanism and Implications for the South Asian Monsoons
Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2005 papers
Abstract
Abstract An atmospheric stationary wave teleconnection mechanism is proposed to explain how ENSO may affect the Tibetan Plateau snow depth and thereby the south Asian monsoons. Using statistical analysis, the short available record of satellite estimates of snow depth, and ray tracing, it is shown that wintertime ENSO conditions in the central Pacific may produce stationary barotropic Rossby waves in the troposphere with a northeastward group velocity. These waves reflect off the North American jet, turning equatorward, and enter the North African–Asian jet over the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Once there, the waves move with the jet across North Africa, South Asia, the Himalayas, and China. Anomalous increases in upper-tropospheric potential vorticity and increased wintertime snowfall over the Tibetan Plateau are speculated to be associated with these Rossby waves. The increased snowfall produces a larger Tibetan Plateau snowpack, which persists through the spring and summer, and weakens the intensity of the south Asian summer monsoons.
Related Papers
- → The Nonlinear Interaction of Barotropic and Equatorial Baroclinic Rossby Waves(2003)146 cited
- → Barotropic and baroclinic instability of Rossby waves on the infinite beta-plane(1992)
- EFFECTS OF TOPOGRAPHY ON SOLITARY ROSSBY WAVES IN A BAROTROPIC ATMOSPHERIC MODEL(1988)
- → Barotropic Rossby Waves With Non-zonal Basic Flows, Topography and δ Effect(2020)
- → Emission of Rossby Waves by Synoptic Vortices(2022)