Heating of the Tibet Plateau and Movements of the South Asian High During Spring

Abstract

Abstract The heating of the Plateau of Tibet (the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau) has been deemed to play an important role in the development and movement of the South Asian anticyclone which, to a great extent, affects the Indian monsoon development. In this paper the heating effects are estimated from synoptic data from that region for April 1979. During the transition season warming over the plateau interacts with advected synoptic systems and induces the South Asian high, normally located south of the Himalayas during that season, to develop strongly and shift northward.