Cross-sectional rainfall observation on the central-western Tibetan Plateau in the warm season:System design and preliminary results

The central and western Tibetan Plateau(CWTP)is characterized by harsh environment and strong interactions among the spheres of earth as well as significant changes in climate and water cycles over the past four decades.The lack of precipitation observations is a bottleneck for the study of land surface processes in this region.Over the past six years,we have designed and established two observation transects across the south-north and the west-east in this region to obtain hourly rainfall data during the warm season(May-September).The south-north transect extends from Yadong Valley on the southern slope of the Himalayas to Shuanghu County in the hinterland of the plateau,with a total of 31stations;the west-east transect extends from Shiquanhe in the west to Naqu in the central TP,with a total of 22 stations.The observation dataset has been applied to clarify the spatiotemporal characteristics of precipitation in the CWTP,to evaluate the quality of typical gridded precipitation products,to support the development of regional climate models,and to reveal the processes of summertime lake-air interactions.The observation dataset has been released in the National Tibetan Plateau Data Center.

Constraint of satellite CO_(2)retrieval on the global carbon cycle from a Chinese atmospheric inversion system

Satellite carbon dioxide(CO_(2))retrievals provide important constraints on surface carbon fluxes in regions that are undersampled by global in situ networks.In this study,we developed an atmospheric inversion system to infer CO_(2)sources and sinks from Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2(OCO-2)column CO_(2)retrievals during 2015–2019,and compared our estimates to five other state-of-the-art inversions.By assimilating satellite CO_(2)retrievals in the inversion,the global net terrestrial carbon sink(net biome productivity,NBP)was found to be 1.03±0.39 petagrams of carbon per year(Pg C yr^(-1));this estimate is lower than the sink estimate of 1.46–2.52 Pg C yr^(-1),obtained using surface-based inversions.We estimated a weak northern uptake of 1.30 Pg C yr-1and weak tropical release of-0.26 Pg C yr^(-1),consistent with previous reports.By contrast,the other inversions showed a strong northern uptake(1.44–2.78 Pg C yr-1),but diverging tropical carbon fluxes,from a sink of 0.77 Pg C yr^(-1) to a source of-1.26 Pg C yr^(-1).During the 2015–2016 El Ni?o event,the tropical land biosphere was mainly responsible for a higher global CO_(2)growth rate.Anomalously high carbon uptake in the northern extratropics,consistent with concurrent extreme Northern Hemisphere greening,partially offset the tropical carbon losses.This anomalously high carbon uptake was not always found in surface-based inversions,resulting in a larger global carbon release in the other inversions.Thus,our satellite constraint refines the current understanding of flux partitioning between northern and tropical terrestrial regions,and suggests that the northern extratropics acted as anomalous high CO_(2)sinks in response to the 2015–2016 El Nino event.

Precipitation recycling ratio and water vapor sources on the Tibetan Plateau

Precipitation recycling ratio(i.e.,evaporation-precipitation feedback strength)and water vapor sources are two key aspects of regional water cycle,and their quantification is essential for understanding water cycle processes and their changes.The results of existing studies on the precipitation recycling ratio and water vapor sources for the Tibetan Plateau were highly controversial.This article clarifies different frameworks for understanding the water cycle.It points out that(1)the ratio of evaporation to precipitation depends mainly on climate regimes,while the precipitation recycling ratio is closely related to both the climate regimes and the scale of the region of interest,and(2)the water vapor sources depend on the traced period(precipitating or non-precipitating period)and the degree of tracing.Within the same theoretical framework,there is no fundamental conflict among the results of different studies on the water cycle in the Tibetan Plateau.

The joint driving effects of climate and weather changes caused the Chamoli glacier-rock avalanche in the high altitudes of the India Himalaya

Ice avalanches are one of the most devastating mountain hazards,and can pose a great risk to the security of the surrounding area.Although ice avalanches have been widely observed in mountainous regions around the world,only a few ice avalanche events have been studied comprehensively,due to the lack of available data.In this study,in response to the recent catastrophic rock-ice avalanche(7 February 2021)at Chamoli in the India Himalaya,we used high-resolution satellite images and found that this event was actually a glacier-rock landslide,where the collapse of the rock-ice body was caused by the sliding of the bedrock beneath the glacier,for which the source area and volume loss were about 2.89×10^(5) m^(2) and 2.46×10^(7) m^(3),respectively,corresponding to an average elevation change of about−85 m.Furthermore,visual analysis of the dense time-series satellite images shows that the overall downward sliding of the collapsed rock-ice body initiated around the summer of 2017,and thereafter exhibited clear seasonality(mainly in summer).Meteorological analysis reveals a strong rainfall anomaly in the initiation period of the sliding and a remarkable winter warming anomaly in the 40 days before the collapse.Comparisons of multi-temporal digital elevation models(DEMs)further suggest that the glacier geometry in the collapsed areas was likely changing(i.e.,accelerated surface thinning in the lower part of the glaciers and insignificant change in the upper part),which is consistent with the region-wide climate warming.Finally,by combining the above findings and a geomorphic analysis,we conclude that the rock-ice avalanche event was mainly caused by the joint effects of climate and weather changes acting on a steeply sloping and fracture-prone geological condition.The findings of this study provide new and valuable evidence for the study of slope/glacier instability at high altitudes.This study also highlights that,for the Himalaya and other high mountain ranges,there is an urgent need to identify the glaciers that have a high risk of ice avalanches.

Projection of China’s future runoff based on the CMIP6 mid-high warming scenarios

The latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6(CMIP6)proposes new shared pathways(SSPs)that incorporate socioeconomic development with more comprehensive and scientific experimental designs;however,few studies have been performed on the projection of future multibasin hydrological changes in China based on CMIP6 models.In this paper,we use the Equidistant Cumulative Distribution Function method(EDCDFm)to perform downscaling and bias correction in daily precipitation,daily maximum temperature,and daily minimum temperature for six CMIP6 models based on the historical gridded data from the high-resolution China Meteorological Forcing Dataset(CMFD).We use the bias-corrected precipitation,temperature,and daily mean wind speed to drive the variable infiltration capacity(VIC)hydrological model,and study the changes in multiyear average annual precipitation,annual evapotranspiration and total annual runoff depth relative to the historical baseline period(1985–2014)for the Chinese mainland,basins and grid scales in the 21st century future under the SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios.The study shows that the VIC model accurately simulates runoff in major Chinese basins;the model data accuracy improves substantially after downscaling bias correction;and the future multimodel-mean multiyear average annual precipitation,annual evapotranspiration,and total annual runoff depth for the Chinese mainland and each basin increase relative to the historical period in near future(2020–2049)and far future(2070–2099)under the SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5scenarios.The new CMIP6-based results of this paper can provide a strong reference for extreme event prevention,water resource utilization and management in China in the 21st century.