Observed Linkage between Tibetan Plateau Soil Moisture and South Asian Summer Precipitation and the Possible Mechanism

AbstractUnderstanding the Tibetan Plateau (TP) thermal processes is of utmost significance in changing climate. This study investigates the effect of soil moisture in changing the TP thermal profile and consequently summer precipitation in South Asia (SA). Soil moisture from Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) developed from the F-08, F-11, and F-13 fundamental climate data record and atmospheric reanalysis from ERA-Interim, MERRA-2, and NCEP/CFSR during 1988–2008 are used. A generalized linear method that assesses the reciprocal forcing between two connected fields, named the coupled manifold technique (CMT), is applied to TP soil moisture and SA summer precipitation. It is revealed that interannual variations of SA precipitation are significantly (confidence level = 99%) impacted by TP soil moisture and the explained ratio of variance in SA is 0.3–0.4. Composite analysis indicates that SA summer precipitation has positive anomalies in response to dry TP soil moisture in the previous spring and vice versa. For understanding the possible mechanism, thermal processes, relative humidity, wind components, and moisture flux anomalies were calculated for dry and wet TP soil moisture and summer precipitation. The results suggested that TP soil moisture is likely to regulate near-surface energy balance and diabatic heating profile over TP. As a result, the surrounding lower-level westerlies (easterlies) (at 850 hPa) converge (diverge), associated with divergence (convergence) at the upper troposphere (200 hPa). The westerlies (easterlies) are usually moisture-rich (moisture-deficient) and thus cause more (less) precipitation in western (eastern) SA. It is thus suggested that the spring soil moisture may affect the thermal profile of TP, affecting the summer precipitation in SA as a consequence.