The Asian summer monsoon has great socioeconomic impacts. Understanding how the huge Tibetan and Iranian Plateaus affect the Asian summer monsoon is of great scientific value and has far-reaching significance for sustainable global development. One hypothesis considers the plateaus to be a shield for monsoon development in India by blocking cold-dry northerly intrusion into the tropics. Based on astronomical radiation analysis and numerical modeling, here we show that in winter the plateaus cannot block such a northerly intrusion; while in summer the daily solar radiation at the top of the atmosphere and at the surface, and the surface potential temperature to the north of the Tibetan Plateau, are higher than their counterparts to its south, and such plateau shielding is not needed. By virtue of hydrological analysis, we show that the high energy near the surface required for continental monsoon development is maintained mainly by high water vapor content. Results based on potential vorticity–potential temperature diagnosis further demonstrate that it is the pumping of water vapor from sea to land due to the thermal effects of the plateaus that breeds the Asian continental monsoon.
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