Fig. 3: Simulated summer (JJA) precipitation (shaded, mm day−1) and water vapor transport integrated from the surface to 700 hPa (vector, units: kg m−1 s−1).
From: Late Miocene Tarim desert wetting linked with eccentricity minimum and East Asian monsoon weakening
JJA June, July and August. a Results using 10 Ma background boundary conditions and orbital parameters for 1950. b Results using pre-industrial background boundaries and orbital parameters for 1950. c Precipitation and water vapor transport differences when increasing eccentricity from 0.01672 (year 1950) to 0.05. The difference is calculated by subtracting the high eccentricity results from the low eccentricity results. Green (yellow) color indicates more precipitation under lower (higher) eccentricity. Topography levels equal to 1500 m and 3000 m are highlighted with gray contours. The three black rectangles in c represent the rough locations of the Tarim Basin, Northeastern (NE) Tibetan Plateau (TP) and the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). Dotted regions indicate differences that are significant at the 90% confidence level.
