Daily and monthly maximum and minimum surface air temperatures at 66 weather stations over the eastern and central Tibetan Plateau with elevations above 2000 m were analyzed for temporal trends and spatial variation patterns during the period 1961–2003. Statistically significant warming trends were identified in various measures of the temperature regime, such as temperatures of extreme events and diurnal temperature range. The warming trends in winter nighttime temperatures were among the highest when compared with other regions. We also confirmed the asymmetric pattern of greater warming trends in minimum or nighttime temperatures as compared to the daytime temperatures. The warming in regional climate caused the number of frost days to decrease significantly and the number of warm days to increase. The length of the growing season increased by approximately 17 days during the 43‐year study period. Most of the record‐setting months for cold events were found in the earlier part of the study period, while that of the warm events occurred mostly in the later half, especially since the 1990s. The changes in the temperature regime in this region may have brought regional‐specific impacts on the ecosystems. It was found that grain production in Qinghai Province, located in the area of prominent warming trends, exhibited strong correlations with the temperatures, although such relationships were obscured by the influence of precipitation in this arid/semiarid environment in juniper tree ring records. In western Sichuan Province under a more humid environment, the tree growth (spruces) was more closely related to the changing temperatures.

The hydrological processes over the Tibetan Plateau have significant implications on regional macroscale atmospheric circulation patterns and the Asian monsoon system. Because of its remote setting and lack of ground observations, it is difficult to study the spatial and temporal patterns of precipitation over the plateau, and satellite remote sensing technology can be used to fill in the gaps where station data are not available. In this study the authors examine monthly 1° × 1° rainfall estimates obtained from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) [National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) algorithm] and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B42 version 5 (V5) products for the months of April–October 1998–2002 over the Tibetan Plateau. By comparing the satellite estimates with ground observations at 94 weather stations in the study region, the authors derived regression models that produced significant improvements to satellite estimates based on various levels of correction efforts, using geographic location and topographic variables extracted from digital elevation models using geographic information systems (GIS) technology. The explained variance in observed precipitation was improved from 34% to 38% by SSM/I and TRMM 3B42 V5 products alone to over 70% when location and topographic variables were added. These topographic variables reflect micro- to mesoscale surface roughness, height of topographic features or relief, slopes facing toward or away from the moisture pathways, and relative locations or directions to prominent topographic features such as mountain peaks and ridgelines.

This study examines precipitation climatology and interannual variability in two regions in the lower midlatitude Asia to the east and west of the Tibetan Plateau, one located in monsoonal East Asia (the M region) and the other in semiarid central Asia (the W region). The focus is on the 5-month summer half year (May–September) for the M region and the winter half year (December–April) for the W region, corresponding to their respective rainy seasons. The main mechanism of moisture transport for the M region is the summer lower-tropospheric southerly winds, whereas the winter midtropospheric westerly circulation between 25° and 45°N is responsible for conducting moisture fluxes to the W region. It is further discovered that the winter precipitation series are positively correlated between the two regions (r = 0.47). There is also a weak cross-seasonal correlation between the winter W region precipitation and summer M region precipitation (r = 0.27). Winter westerly circulation over the W region is influenced by both the east Atlantic–western Russia and the polar–Eurasia extratropical teleconnection patterns, while El Niño–Southern Oscillation influences regional circulation patterns in both regions through teleconnections via the Indo-Pacific warm pool convection in winter and its lagged impact on the western North Pacific anticyclone over the Philippine Sea. In the meantime, responses of the regional winter circulation in the M region to the upstream westerly circulation intensity cause the correlation in winter precipitation between the two regions. Such linkages form the basis of the concurrent and cross-seasonal correlations in precipitation between the two remote regions.

Tree‐ring widths have been used widely in studies of environmental changes and reconstructions of past climate. Eleven tree‐ring chronologies of approximately 800–1500 years long were developed from Qilian junipers (Sabina przewalskii Kom.) for northeastern Qaidam Basin, along the margin of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. Previous studies have revealed that water usage stress is the most limiting factor for tree growth in the study region. To evaluate the impact of the combined effects of temperature and precipitation changes over time, we performed water balance modelling using 1955–2002 meteorological data. We found that the tree‐ring widths were strongly correlated with variables representing soil moisture conditions obtained from the water balance model. Specifically we considered actual evapotranspiration (AE) to represent the combined effect of water use demand and moisture availability, deficit as the difference between potential evapotranspiration (PE) and AE to represent the severity of water use stress, and relative soil moisture as the measure of moisture availability. For certain individual monthly and seasonal combinations, the tree‐ring chronologies explained up to 80% of the variation in the soil moisture variables in regression analysis, indicating very good potential for reconstruction of regional soil moisture conditions in the past. These soil moisture variables outperformed precipitation and Palmer's drought severity index in most cases. We reconstructed the soil moisture conditions from 566 AD to 2001, which revealed major dry and wet periods and a general trend toward a wetter condition during the most recent 300 years. By comparing with other proxies in the region, we concluded that the moisture conditions reconstructed from tree‐ring widths very well reflected the climate variability at the interannual and interdecadal scales. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society

The spatial and temporal variations of aerosol loading over eastern Asia specified in terms of the aerosol optical depth (AOD) at the 550-nm wavelength during July are examined in conjunction with the intensity of the Indian summer monsoon. AOD derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations, gridded reanalyses, and ground-based measurements are used in the analysis. Two contrasting years, 2002 and 2003, which represent weak and active Indian summer monsoon events, respectively, are selected for the study, with a focus on an eastern Asian southern subregion (SR; 23°–32°N, 105°–120°E) and an eastern Asian northern subregion (NR; 35°–44°N, 115°–130°E). It is shown that the interannual variation of July mean wind intensity is a major factor in regulating the midsummer spatial pattern of aerosols over eastern Asia when the Indian monsoon index is anomalously large. The AOD anomalies in the NR and SR are positive and negative, respectively, during an active monsoon year, whereas the opposite is observed during a weak monsoon year. The variation patterns of less cloudy-day visibility, observed at four meteorological stations in the SR and NR subregions, also show spatial–temporal aerosol variability evident in the MODIS AOD data. Relative to the case of a weak monsoon year, meridional winds and convection are stronger and more clouds and precipitation are observed in the NR subregion during the active monsoon year. The opposite pattern is observed in the SR subregion. The spatial–temporal variation pattern of aerosols over eastern Asia illustrates the nonnegligible role of transport and dispersal mechanisms associated with the Indian summer monsoon in the region.