A dynamic link between spring Arctic sea ice and the Tibetan Plateau snow increment indicator
Chao Zhang, Anmin Duan, Xiaojing Jia, Zhibiao Wang, Zhulei Pan
Abstract
Abstract Tibetan Plateau snow has long been recognized as a sensitive indicator of climate variability. However, the commonly used snow indicator cannot fully represent the interannual variability in late autumn Tibetan Plateau snow. Here, we establish a snow indicator for Tibetan Plateau snow variability: the snow cover extent increment within late autumn. This snow increment indicator improves the standard deviation by 72.6% and diabatic cooling by 89.7% over the entire Tibetan Plateau, which shows a robust link to the subsequent spring Arctic sea-ice concentration. Faster Tibetan Plateau snow cover extent increment leads to stronger Tibetan Plateau cooling and disturbance along the subtropical westerly jet, thereby inducing a Tibetan Plateau-Arctic wave train and a spring Arctic cyclonic anomaly. This cyclonic system favors the reduction in spring Arctic sea-ice by equatorward sea ice drift, implying a link between spring Arctic sea-ice and the Tibetan Plateau snow increment indicator through the wave train and sea-ice dynamic processes.