An Integrated Research Plan for the Tibetan Plateau Land-Air Coupled System and Its Impacts on the Global Climate

The unique characteristics of land-air coupling and troposphere-stratosphere interaction over the Tibetan Plateau (TP), the highest landform in the world, play a vital role in weather and climate on regional and global scales. Although a great deal of research has been carried out, large gaps remain in our understanding of TP land-air coupling and its climate effects, due to a lack of observations and the issue of model biases. To address these obstacles, a 10-yr national research program entitled Changes in the Land-Air Coupled System over the Tibetan Plateau and its Impacts on Global Climate (LASTPIC) was launched by the National Natural Science Foundation of China in January 2014. What LASTPIC does revolves around three aspects: TP land-air coupled processes; TP's influence on global climate; and reanalysis and model. This paper mainly focuses on the data collection, scientific understanding, and model development of LASTPIC in terms of TP land-atmosphere-ocean coupling and its global climate impacts since program's inception.

Automated summary

The unique characteristics of land-air coupling and troposphere-stratosphere interaction over the Tibetan Plateau play a vital role in weather and climate on regional and global scales. However, gaps in our understanding still exist due to a lack of observations and model biases. To address these obstacles, a 10-year research program called LASTPIC was launched in 2014, focusing on TP land-air coupled processes, TP's influence on global climate, and reanalysis and model development.