Impacts of Diabatic Heating on the Genesis and Development of an Inner Tibetan Plateau Vortex

Abstract

A short-lived (less than 2 days) inner Tibetan Plateau vortex (TPV) with heavy precipitation was simulated using the Weather Research and Forecasting model, and the sensitivity experiments with and without surface diabatic heating and atmospheric latent heating released by precipitation were conducted to investigate the roles of surface and atmospheric diabatic heating on the genesis and development of TPV. Results show that before the genesis of the TPV, there is an anomalous increase of surface heating flux; while a disturbance of potential vorticity (PV) at 500 hPa moves over this region, the PV is enhanced and induces the generation of TPV. The precipitation in turn reduces the surface heating flux. The release of condensation latent heating by precipitation during the development of TPV does not further contribute to its reinforcement. Instead, it is more likely a result of precipitation, tending to stabilize the atmosphere and conducive to the decay of TPV. The PV diagnoses further reveal that in the early phase, the strong diabatic heating in the lower levels associated with the increasing surface heating flux has a significantly positive contribution to the generation of the TPV. The precipitation results in the decrease of positive diabatic heating contribution at low levels. Inversely, the diabatic heating in the middle levels associated with the released latent heating of precipitation condensation tends to have the negative contribution to TPV, resulting in the decay of TPV. The study of this case can deepen our understanding on the mechanism of TPV and its precipitation.