LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Warming-induced monsoon precipitation phase change intensifies glacier mass loss in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau

Photo from wikipedia

Significance Rapid mass loss of glaciers in High Mountain Asia has large consequences for downstream water supply and glacier-related hazards. Glaciers in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau are experiencing the highest… Click to show full abstract

Significance Rapid mass loss of glaciers in High Mountain Asia has large consequences for downstream water supply and glacier-related hazards. Glaciers in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau are experiencing the highest mass loss rates within Asia, despite the limited impact of recent warming on their spring accumulation regime. Based on model simulations reconstructing the climate and glacier evolution of the last 45 y, we show that the recent acceleration in observed glacier mass loss was effected by a warming-induced shift from snowfall to rainfall during the monsoon months, exacerbated by decreasing monsoon precipitation since the 2000s and only partly mitigated by increasing spring precipitation. Our results reveal the processes behind the high sensitivity to climate warming for glaciers in this region.

Keywords: mass loss; loss; southeastern tibetan; monsoon; tibetan plateau; precipitation

Journal Title: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Year Published: 2022

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.