• DOI:10.1175/1520-0493(1998)126<0913:TPFATT>2.0.CO;2
• Corpus ID: 124783607

Tibetan Plateau Forcing and the Timing of the Monsoon Onset over South Asia and the South China Sea

@article{Wu1998TibetanPF,
  title={Tibetan Plateau Forcing and the Timing of the Monsoon Onset over South Asia and the South China Sea},
  author={Guoxiong Wu and Yongsheng Zhang},
  journal={Monthly Weather Review},
  year={1998},
  volume={126},
  pages={913-927}
}

• Guoxiong Wu, Yongsheng Zhang
• Published 1 April 1998
• Environmental Science
• Monthly Weather Review

Abstract Observations were employed to study the thermal characteristics of the Tibetan Plateau and its neighboring regions, and their impacts on the onset of the Asian monsoon in 1989. Special attention was paid to the diagnosis of the temporal and spatial distributions of surface sensible and latent heat fluxes. Results show that the whole procedure of the outbreak of the Asian monsoon onset is composed of three consequential stages. The first is the monsoon onset over the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal (BOB) in early May. It is followed by the onset of the East Asian monsoon over the South China Sea (SCS) by 20 May, then the onset of the South Asian monsoon over India by 10 June. It was shown that the onset of the BOB monsoon is directly linked to the thermal as well as mechanical forcing of the Tibetan Plateau. It then generates a favorable environment for the SCS monsoon onset. Afterward, as the whole flow pattern in tropical Asia shifts westward, the onset of the South Asian monsoon occurs. Fina...