Cross-tropopause mass exchange associated with a tropopause fold event over the northeastern Tibetan Plateau

A springtime tropopause fold event, found to be related to a cold trough intrusion from the north, was detected in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau (TP) based on various observations. A nested high-resolution mesoscale model was employed to investigate the effect of orography on the stratosphere-troposphere exchange. The model was found to be able to capture plausible tropopause fold properties. The propagation of the tropopause fold changed significantly when the terrain height in the model was altered. However, decreasing the terrain height had no significant effect on the morphology of folds. When a fold passed over an elevated surface, a leeside jet stream and a layer of humid air in the middle troposphere tended to develop. This strong leeside descent of air masses and high mid-level potential instability (PI) could give rise to deep upward motions in the leeside and inject tropospheric air into the lower stratosphere. Besides, when the flow encounters an elevated surface, forced lifting together with mid-level PI can trigger deep convective motions on the windward slope. The troposphere to stratosphere transport was found to be persistent and almost stationary over the windward slope of the TP during the evolution of the fold.