Reexamine the Tibetan Plateau Vortices Sources Based on Multiple Resource Datasets

The Tibetan Plateau vortex (TPV) is a kind of mesoscale weather system that exists near the surface of the Tibetan Plateau (TP). TPVs are the major precipitation-producing weather system over the TP, and a small portion of the TPVs move off the TP, causing catastrophic heavy rainfall in the downstream areas of the TP. The yearbook of the TPVs edited by the Chengdu Institute of Plateau Meteorology offers important references in the field of TPVs research. The TPV source of the yearbook is dominantly located over the eastern TP, but most TPVs obtained via the reanalysis are generated over the western TP. It is the most significant difference between the TPVs derived from the yearbook and the reanalysis. To clarify the source of TPVs, we first examine the differences in the general circulation between the eastern and western regions of the TP that affect the development of the TPVs and find that the large-scale circulation in the western TP is more favorable to the generation of TPVs. Second, the atmospheric moving vector and blackbody bright temperature derived from the FY-2 geostationary satellites during 2005–2019 are used to reexamine the TPV sources from the yearbook, showing that most TPVs are generated from the western TP. Finally, we checked the difference in the TPV source via the yearbook between the former and later periods of the construction of the three new sounding stations over the western TP, which are Shiquanhe, Gaize, and Shenzha. It shows that the new data significantly increases the proportion of TPVs generated from the western TP. Combining the results obtained from multiple sources, we conclude that most TPVs originate in the western part of the TP, and the conclusion of the yearbook may be misguided because of the insufficient soundings in the western part of the TP. This study confirms the availability and reliability of reanalysis data in the study of TPVs and emphasizes the importance of satellite-based observations in the study of weather systems and the urgency of further enhancing observations over the TP.