Research across several areas of the "Third Pole" – the high-mountain region centered on the Tibetan Plateau – shows a seasonal cycle in how near-surface temperature changes with elevation.
Research across several areas of the "Third Pole" – the high-mountain region centered on the Tibetan Plateau – shows a seasonal cycle in how near-surface temperature changes with elevation. Near-surface temperature, which reflects the energy balance at the land surface, is crucial because it drives climate processes.
The research was conducted by a team led by Dr. D. B. Kattel, a researcher at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was published in Theoretical and Applied Climatology, with Dr. Kattel as the lead author.
The Third Pole stores more snow and ice than anywhere else in the world outside the Arctic and the Antarctic, thus earning it the “Third Pole” sobriquet.
The unique cryospheric (i.e., involving frozen water) processes at the Third Pole make the area particularly sensitive to global environmental changes. Slight changes in climate can result in large-scale melting of glaciers, permafrost and persistent snow, thus altering the land-surface energy balance at the Third Pole and air and water cycles in the region and beyond.
Read more at Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
