Fig. 2: Meridional moisture transport (using the ERA-Interim dataset) from South Asia to the Tibetan plateau, together with the linkage of South Asian black carbon to summer precipitation over the southern Tibetan plateau.
From: South Asian black carbon is threatening the water sustainability of the Asian Water Tower
a Cross-section of meridional averaged (80°–90° E) moisture transport for the period 1989–2018. b Cross-section of meridional averaged moisture transport change between the periods 1989–2003 and 2004–2018. c, d Correlation coefficients between area-averaged precipitation over the southern Tibetan plateau using a subset of the CRU dataset (1961–2014) to concur with Peking University’s black carbon emissions dataset (1961–2014) over South Asia. Black dots in c and d indicate statistically significant areas. Insignificant positive correlations in c still imply a decrease in summer precipitation over the southern Tibetan plateau from 2004 onwards is closely related to increased South Asian black carbon (Supplementary Fig. 19). In panels a and b, the vertical red dashed line represents the southerly extent of the Tibetan plateau while the gray area outlines the areal extent of the plateau.
