The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is referred to as the “water tower” of Asia for being home to the headwaters of many major rivers in Asia, including the Yangtze, Yellow, Ganges, and Indus. Therefore, TP precipitation is important for not only local, but regional water resources too. On the other hand, the TP can strongly modulate the Asian climate through dynamic and thermal processes. Previous studies have shown that TP snow in winter/spring can significantly influence the Asian monsoon at interannual to interdecadal time scales. TP snow increased after the late 1970s and decreased after the late 1990s, contributing to simultaneous East Asian summer rainfall changes. However, little attention has been paid to the possible mechanism of TP precipitation change at interdecadal time scales.
Click here for original story, Discovery of a tripole winter precipitation change pattern around the Tibetan Plateau in the late 1990s
Source: Phys.org