The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the roof of the world, the Water Tower of Asia and the Third Pole of the Earth. Its topographic uplift has changed the atmospheric circulation in Asia and prompted the Asian monsoon, the largest monsoon system on Earth, which exerts a significant impact on the weather and climate of China, the Northern Hemisphere and even the whole world. Many rivers in Asia spring from this region, which provides abundant water resources for East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia.

However, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is also one of the regions in the world which are most sensitive to climate change. Conducting scientific expeditions and studies on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, revealing the mechanism of environmental change, and optimizing the ecological security barrier system will have a far-reaching impact on promoting the sustainable development of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the global ecological and environmental protection. China's meteorological departments have made overall plans and detailed arrangements to monitor and protect this pure land.

Scientific expeditions have promoted the economic and social development

China launched atmospheric scientific experiment on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in 1979 and 1998 respectively, which has substantially pushed ahead the development of plateau meteorology. However, restrained by high altitude and complex terrain in plateau regions, the two experiments focused on land-air interaction in near-surface layer of the plateau and the obtained data were limited.

In May 2013, the third atmospheric scientific experiment on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was kicked off. Its research oriented towards the troposphere and stratosphere. It mainly targeted at solving meteorological observation and forecasting technical issues in plateau regions.

After 8-year endeavor, the third experiment has achieved major innovation results, which has not only propelled meteorological operational development but also contributed to the high-quality economic and social development. Ground soil observing station network in central-western part of the plateau and conventional factor automatic sounding system in the west were constructed. They have markedly elevated severe weather monitoring and forecasting capacity and the capability to serve the agriculture. Severe weather numerical weather prediction (NWP) system in plateau regions was put into operation.

In 2017, the second Qinghai-Tibet Plateau comprehensive scientific expedition was kick-started. Meteorological departments have undertaken the first task of “westerly wind-monsoon coordinated interaction and the impact. It mainly focused on the impact factors in terms of water resources in the Water Tower of Asia, and ecological change, and studied climate change and its coordinated role of westerly wind and monsoon.

The research team has revealed the important role of low cloud activity in plateau regions and deep convection in the entire world, in particular, water vapor transfer between Arctic and Antarctica.

Reinforcing coordination and promoting ecological environment protection and climate change adaptation

As warm-wet tendency in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau further aggravates, plateau regions are greener with more plentiful water resources, and the living space for wild life has been expanded. While in the same time, extreme weather and climate events are latent. Safeguarding this pure land will benefit future generations.

China Meteorological Administration (CMA) has attached more importance to safeguarding the ecological environment in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. CMA has rolled out a series of documents and carried out various climate assessments. A series of measures are in the pipeline oriented towards ecological environment protection and climate change adaptation in the region.

Looking forward, climate change in the region will be confronted with more scientific issues, and corresponding actions are imperative in response.

Editor: Liu Shuqiao