<P> Monsoons are caused by the different amplitudes of surface temperature seasonal cycles between land and oceans . This differential warming happens because heating rates differ between land and water . Ocean heating is distributed vertically through a "mixed layer" that may be fifty meters deep through the action of wind and buoyancy - generated turbulence, whereas the land surface conducts heat slowly, with the seasonal signal penetrating only a meter or so . Additionally, the specific heat capacity of liquid water is significantly greater than that of most materials that make up land . Together, these factors mean that the heat capacity of the layer participating in the seasonal cycle is much larger over the oceans than over land, with the consequence that the land warms and cools faster than the ocean . In turn, air over the land warms faster and reaches a higher temperature than does air over the ocean . The warmer air over land tends to rise, creating an area of low pressure . The pressure anomaly then causes a steady wind to blow toward the land, which brings the moist air over the ocean surface with it . Rainfall is then increased by the presence of the moist ocean air . The rainfall is stimulated by a variety of mechanisms, such as low - level air being lifted upwards by mountains, surface heating, convergence at the surface, divergence aloft, or from storm - produced outflows near the surface . When such lifting occurs, the air cools due expansion in lower pressure, which in turn produces condensation and precipitation . </P> <P> In winter, the land cools off quickly, but the ocean maintains the heat longer . The hot air over the ocean rises, creating a low - pressure area and a breeze from land to ocean while a large area of drying high pressure is formed over the land, increased by wintertime cooling . Monsoons are similar to sea and land breezes, a term usually referring to the localized, diurnal cycle of circulation near coastlines everywhere, but they are much larger in scale, stronger and seasonal . The seasonal monsoon wind shift and weather associated with the heating and cooling of the Tibetan plateau is the strongest such monsoon on Earth . </P> <P> Today, Tibet is an important heating surface of the atmosphere . However, during the Last Glacial Maximum, an approximately 2,400,000 square kilometres (930,000 sq mi) ice sheet covered the plateau . Due to its great extent, this glaciation in the subtropics was an important element of radiative forcing . With a much lower latitude, the ice in Tibet reflected at least four times more radiation energy per unit area into space than ice at higher latitudes . Thus, while the modern plateau heats the overlying atmosphere, during the Last Ice Age it helped to cool it . </P> <P> This cooling had multiple effects on regional climate . Without the thermal low pressure caused by the heating, there was no monsoon over the Indian subcontinent . This lack of monsoon caused extensive rainfall over the Sahara, expansion of the Thar Desert, more dust deposited into the Arabian Sea, and a lowering of the biotic life zones on the Indian subcontinent . Animals responded to this shift in climate, with the Javan rusa migrating into India . </P>

What is the climate of the tibetan plateau