Decadal variability in snow cover over the Tibetan Plateau during the last two centuries

Based on the coherency in decadal variability between the ice core data and the observed snow cover over the Tibetan Plateau during recent decades, we used three available ice core data to characterize the snow cover variability of the last 200 years. The analysis suggests that the snow cover exhibits significant decadal variability with major shifts around 1840s, 1880s, 1920s, and 1960s. Its variations are found to be closely correlated with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation: Cool/warm phases coincide with large/small snow cover. A plausible mechanism linking the North Atlantic climate to Asian monsoon is presented. Citation: Shen, C., W.-C. Wang, and G. Zeng (2011), Decadal variability in snow cover over the Tibetan Plateau during the last two centuries, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L10703, doi:10.1029/2011GL047288.