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Using a tethered balloon to monitor atmospheric water vapour dynamics over the Tibetan Plateau

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 5, page 78 (2024)Cite this article

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Atmospheric water vapour plays a crucial role in regulating air temperature and precipitation. Understanding atmospheric water vapour dynamics on the Asian Water Towers (AWTs) centred on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is particularly important, as they are related to slowed glacier melt and thus to accelerated downstream water scarcity. Satellite remote sensing can provide insights into spatiotemporal water vapour variations, but its resolution is limited and data for the TP are insufficient. Stable isotopes (δ18O, δ2H and d-excess) can be used to distinguish advection, mixing and source conditions in the atmospheric water cycle, as the isotopes fractionate during phase transitions. However, measuring water-vapour stable isotopes at the TP is difficult, as aircraft observations face altitude challenges below 10,000 m a.s.l. and drone observations are hindered in low-pressure, high-altitude environments on the TP.

Air balloons have so far been used to gather observations across the TP, from the Pamir Plateau, to Everest north base camp, to Namco lake, to Lulang, producing vertical profiles spanning from 3,300 m a.s.l. to 9,050 m a.s.l. These data have unveiled spatiotemporal changes in the TP’s atmospheric water cycle. For example, under warming, a weakened Indian monsoon brings less moisture to the southern TP, resulting in accelerated melting of glaciers and water losses in the exorheic basins. Conversely, the strengthening westerlies transport more moisture to the northern TP, resulting in stable glaciers there and water gains in the endorheic basins. In the future, tethered balloons might be able to lift more kinds of payloads into the atmosphere, such as radars, turbulence probes and cloud particle sensors (CPS) for boundary layer detections on the TP, and observations could be extended to the polar regions.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by ‘The Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) program’ (Grant No. 2019QZKK0208) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 41922002). The author expresses gratitude to J. Gao for her guidance. The author also extends thanks to all team members of STEP who were involved in the tethered balloon project.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Gebanruo Chen

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Gebanruo Chen

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Correspondence to Gebanruo Chen.

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Chen, G. Using a tethered balloon to monitor atmospheric water vapour dynamics over the Tibetan Plateau. Nat Rev Earth Environ 5, 78 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00517-1

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