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Dominant control of the South Asian monsoon by orographic insulation versus plateau heating

Author

Listed:
  • William R. Boos

    (Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences,)

  • Zhiming Kuang

    (Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences,
    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA)

Abstract

Monsoon from the mountains Heat emitted from the Tibetan plateau as dry heat and water vapour has long been assumed to be the main driver of the South Asian summer monsoon, but new work suggests that in fact it is the neighbouring mountains that are the major influence. William Boos and Zhiming Kuang use an atmospheric model to show that flattening the Tibetan plateau has little effect on the monsoon, so long as the Himalayas and surrounding mountain ranges remain. The plateau does boost rainfall locally along its southern edge, but it is the build-up of hot, moist air over India, insulated from colder, drier air by the Himalayas, that drives large-scale monsoon circulation.

Suggested Citation

  • William R. Boos & Zhiming Kuang, 2010. "Dominant control of the South Asian monsoon by orographic insulation versus plateau heating," Nature, Nature, vol. 463(7278), pages 218-222, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:463:y:2010:i:7278:d:10.1038_nature08707
    DOI: 10.1038/nature08707
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    Cited by:

    1. Siddique Ullah & Adnan Ahmad Tahir & Tahir Ali Akbar & Quazi K. Hassan & Ashraf Dewan & Asim Jahangir Khan & Mudassir Khan, 2019. "Remote Sensing-Based Quantification of the Relationships between Land Use Land Cover Changes and Surface Temperature over the Lower Himalayan Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Bidyut Bikash Goswami & Soon-Il An & Raghu Murtugudde, 2022. "Role of the Tibetan plateau glaciers in the Asian summer monsoon," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 1-16, August.
    3. Ruimin Yang & Liping Zhu & Junbo Wang & Jianting Ju & Qingfeng Ma & Falko Turner & Yun Guo, 2017. "Spatiotemporal variations in volume of closed lakes on the Tibetan Plateau and their climatic responses from 1976 to 2013," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 621-633, February.

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