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Climate

A moist model monsoon

Nature volume 463, pages 163–164 (2010)Cite this article

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Received wisdom about the main driver of the South Asian monsoon comes into question with a report that tests the idea that the Himalayas, not the Tibetan plateau, are the essential topographic ingredient.

A substantial literature takes it for granted that the prime reason for the great strength of the South Asian monsoon is the heating effect of the Tibetan plateau. On page 218 of this issue, Boos and Kuang1 show that what counts is the barrier posed by the mountains at the southern edge of the plateau, not the heating. This view has deep implications for our mechanistic understanding of this monsoon system, for our projections of how it might be altered in a warmer world, and for our understanding of Earth history.

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Figure 1: A new model monsoon.

References

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  1. Mark A. Cane is at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964-8000, USA. mcane@ldeo.columbia.edu ,

    Mark A. Cane

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  1. Mark A. Cane
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Cane, M. A moist model monsoon. Nature 463, 163–164 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/463163a

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