With an average elevation of 4000 m, High Mountain Asia (HMA) and the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are hosting the third largest reservoir of glaciers and snow after the two polar ice caps, and trigger strong rates of orographic precipitation. Climate …
Snow cover strongly modulates the energy fluxes between the atmosphere and the Earth's surface. Indeed, snow has generally a much higher albedo compared to other surfaces and therefore reduces the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the surface. …
Snow cover strongly modulates the energy fluxes between the atmosphere and the Earth's surface. Indeed, snow has generally a much higher albedo compared to other surfaces and therefore reduces the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the surface. …
Climate change over High Mountain Asia is investigated with CMIP6 climate models. A general cold bias is found in this area, often related to a snow cover overestimation in the models. Ensemble experiments generally encompass the past observed trends, suggesting that even biased models can reproduce the trends. Depending on the future scenario, a warming from 1.9 to 6.5 °C, associated with a snow cover decrease and precipitation increase, is expected at the end of the 21st century.