Effects of Tibetan Plateau summer monsoon on glacier change over the Pamir Plateau during 1980-2012

The glacier over the Pamir Plateau had received a slight expansion during 1980-2012, which was different from ones over the most of High Asia. Our study revealed the possible influencing mechanism of the Tibetan Plateau summer monsoon on glacier change over the Pamir Plateau. The Tibetan Plateau summer monsoon could both modulate the T 2m and precipitation well related the glacier change over the Pamir Plateau via influencing the middle to upper tropospheric temperatures. One possible physical mechanism was identified. The strong Tibetan Plateau monsoon could result in the cooling of middle to upper tropospheric temperatures over central Asia. On the one hand, the cooling of middle to upper tropospheric temperatures caused the decline of 0℃ level height, which slowed down the warming amplitude of T 2m over the Pamir Plateau. On the other hand the cooling of middle to upper tropospheric temperatures could strengthened the occurrence of anomalous cyclone over central Asia and the northward transport of water vapor from the Arabian Sea, which were well related to summer precipitation over the Pamir Plateau. Above both suggested that the strong summer Tibetan Plateau monsoon was contributed the expansion of glacier over the Pamir Plateau.