Characteristics of the water cycle in the atmosphere over the Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau plays an important role in the development of Asian monsoon circulations. The Tibetan Plateau itself contains the richest water resources in the forms of snowpacks, glaciers, lakes, rivers, and aquifers. The mechanical and thermal forcing of the unique Tibetan Plateau-topography provides a profound impact on Asian and global water cycles as well as climate and environment changes. In view of the specially important role of the Tibetan Plateau in building Asian summer monsoon system, regional and global water cycles, the advances in study of the atmospheric water cycle over the Tibetan Plateau are reviewed with the emphases on the respects of (1) the local convection in the atmosphere over the Tibetan Plateau, (2) the mechanism of the two-ladder "CISK" in the vapor uplift to the Tibetan Plateau, (3) the structures of apparent heat source over the Tibetan Plateau with the multi-scale vapor busway, (4) the patterns of source-receptor of vapor from oceans to the plateau, (5) the cross-hemispheric water cycle in the vertical atmospheric circulation and (6) a comprehensive understanding of the atmospheric water cycle over the Tibetan Plateau. In the recent research, a comprehensive pattern of the atmospheric water cycle over the Tibetan Plateau is revealed; the mechanism on the thermal forcing of large Tibetan Plateau-topography and its effect on cloud-precipitation are investigated; the Asian regional and cross-hemispheric vapor transport structures in the vertical atmospheric circulation driven by the Tibetan Plateau forcing are characterized; and the feedback interaction between the Tibetan Plateau`s thermal forcing and the hydrological process of ocean-atmosphere-land is explored. The Asian rivers originating from the Tibetan Plateau have been sustaining the life, agricultural and industrial water usage for the Asian regions with a large population, and therefore, it is vital to understand the atmospheric water cycle and its impact on the changes in the Tibetan Plateau water resource under background of the global warming. The atmospheric water cycle process over the TP with the global effect is needed to further studied.