Abstract:
Currently, Asia is the world’s fastest growing economic region, which will lead to regional and even global climatic and environmental issues, and these issues are becoming an important topic of concern for the scientific community. Some studies indicate that the Asian summer monsoon region provides a key pathway for the boundary layer species transport into the global stratosphere, in which the Tibetan Plateau plays an important role due to its tall and huge terrain. In this review, a few key scientific aspects and related issues are discussed as follows: atmospheric composition distribution in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS), tropopause aerosol layer, cirrus and deep convection activity over the Asian summer monsoon region, and variation of South Asia high and its impact on UTLS species distribution. It is pointed out that the region controlled by the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone is special in the boreal summer for its enchanced troposheric tracers, aerosol, and cirrus fraction, and dehanced stratospheric tracers, which will have an important impact on regional and even global climate and environment through atmospheric radiation, microphysical and out-of-phase chemical processes. Inter-comparison is conducted between the Asian summer monsoon and the North American summer monsoon on the distribution of various species in the UTLS region, and the respective transportation roles of deep convection activity and large-scale circulation are discussed in determining the distribution of atmospheric species, particularly the variance on different species. Finally, a few critical scientific topics are put forward for future investigation on the stratosphere-troposphere interaction over the Tibetan Plateau and its impact on climate and environment.