Oceanic repeaters boost the global climatic impact of the Tibetan Plateau

Yongkun Xie; Jianping Huang; Guoxiong Wu; Yimin Liu; Wenhao Dong; Mengmeng Lu; Bian He; Zifan Su; Qing Bao; Qingyun Zhao; Yuzhi Liu

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2023.07.019

Oceanic repeaters boost the global climatic impact of the Tibetan Plateau

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2023 Oct 15;68(19):2225-2235. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2023.07.019. Epub 2023 Jul 14.

Authors

Yongkun Xie¹, Jianping Huang², Guoxiong Wu³, Yimin Liu⁴, Wenhao Dong⁵, Mengmeng Lu⁶, Bian He⁴, Zifan Su⁷, Qing Bao⁴, Qingyun Zhao¹, Yuzhi Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Collaborative Innovation Center for Western Ecological Safety, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center for Western Ecological Safety, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China. Electronic address: hjp@lzu.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (LASG), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China; College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: gxwu@lasg.iap.ac.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (LASG), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China; College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁵ NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton NJ 08542, USA; Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder CO 80301, USA.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather and Institute of Tibetan Plateau Meteorology, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing 100081, China; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai 519000, China.
⁷ Collaborative Innovation Center for Western Ecological Safety, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China; College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.

PMID: 37482448
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2023.07.019

Abstract

The topography of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) has shaped the paleoclimatic evolution of the Asian monsoon. However, the influence of the TP on the global climate, beyond the domain of the Asian monsoon, remains unclear. Here we show that the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans act as efficient repeaters that boost the global climatic impact of the TP. The simulations demonstrate that oceanic repeaters enable TP heating to induce a wide-ranging climate response across the globe. A 1 °C TP warming can result in a 0.73 °C temperature increase over North America. Oceanic repeaters exert their influence by enhancing the air-sea interaction-mediated horizontal heat and moisture transport, as well as relevant atmospheric circulation pathways including westerlies, stationary waves, and zonal-vertical cells. Air-sea interactions were further tied to local feedbacks, mainly the decreased air-sea latent heat flux from the weakening air-sea humidity difference and the increased shortwave radiation from sinking motion-induced cloud reduction over the North Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Our findings highlight the crucial influence of TP heating variation on the current climate under a quasi-fixed topography, in contrast to topography change previously studied in paleoclimate evolution. Therefore, TP heating should be considered in research on global climate change.

Keywords: Air-sea interactions; Global climate; Oceanic repeater; Pacific and Atlantic Oceans; Tibetan Plateau.