6月21日，《科学：新闻聚焦》（Science: News Focus）以“季风之争（Monsoon Melee）”为题报道了近期中美两国科学家关于青藏高原影响季风的争论。
青藏高原热力效应对天气气候的影响一直是高原研究中的重要课题。2010年，耶鲁大学的William R. Boos和哈佛大学的Zhiming Kuang在《自然》（Nature）上发表文章，认为高原热力作用对印度季风形成并不重要，提出了喜马拉雅山阻挡干冷空气形成印度陆面高的能量进而导致印度季风和对流层上层的暖中心在印度上空形成的观点。2012年，中国科学院大气物理研究所吴国雄院士等在Nature Publishing Group的《科学报告》（Scientific Reports）上发文，证明了亚洲季风主要是热力驱动的，并指出Boos、Kuang文章中存在的问题。《科学》（Science）近日发表了Jane Qiu的文章，对这一争论进行了详细报道。文中还介绍了知名科学家美国佐治亚理工学院Peter Webster教授和英国帝国理工学院Brain Hoskins教授/爵士（中国科学院外籍院士）等对Boos、Kuang观点的异议。
青藏高原对天气气候的影响至今尚未为世人所充分认识，这样的学术争论将有助于深入理解大地形的气候效应，对提高天气预报和气候预测准确率大有好处。（生物谷Bioon.com）
Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.340.6139.1400
Monsoon Melee
Jane Qiu*
The textbook explanation for the Indian monsoon holds that warm air above the Tibetan plateau causes the annual deluge. Under the theory, first proposed in the 1950s, the difference in atmospheric temperatures between air over the plateau and over the Indian Ocean creates winds that suck moist air from the sea into the Indian subcontinent, causing rain. But some researchers now contend that heating of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, rather than Tibet, drives the monsoon, with the Himalayas creating a barrier that blocks cold, dry winds from the north. Contributing to the controversy is the fact that modeling climate in mountainous regions is notoriously difficult. How the matter is resolved could affect how scientists predict the start date and duration of the monsoon, as well as how it will respond to climate change.
