作为世界第三极的青藏高原，是对全球天气气候影响最为显著的自然地貌之一。其巨大陆表深入对流层中部，热力效应直接作用于大气，不但形成了亚洲气候格局，甚至会导致北半球乃至全球气候变异。在青藏高原北部分布着北半球中纬度面积最大的沙漠群，与包括青藏高原在内的其他下垫面相比，沙漠具有地表反照率大、土壤热容量小、含水量低等特点，是地球系统中重要的感热源，同样对全球和区域能量平衡及气候变化和变异具有重要作用。青藏高原及其北部广阔沙漠区域——两种重要的陆地系统组成了全球独有的共生地理单元，它们之间的陆—气耦合必定通过某种过程相互关联。干旱是全球常见且危害极为严重的自然灾害，中国是全球干旱发生最为频繁的国家之一，特别是在中国北方，在气候变化大背景下，干旱也呈多发、加重的趋势。干旱成因复杂，始终是国内外相关领域研究的难点和热点。那么，从高原—沙漠共生地理单元的陆—气耦合过程出发，通过何种机制作用于我国北方干旱的形成和演变？这是一个值得探究的前沿论题。梳理了近年来青藏高原大气科学研究和包括沙漠地区的干旱半干旱陆面过程研究的最新进展，从中凝练出青藏高原和北部沙漠之间的陆—气耦合过程对我国干旱影响研究的关键科学问题，以期对开展相关探索的科技工作者有所帮助。

As the third pole of the world， the Tibet Plateau （TP） is one of the natural landforms， which has the most significant impact on global weather and climate. The thermal effect of the huge land surface deep into the middle of the troposphere directly affects the atmosphere， which not only forms the climate pattern in Asia， but also leads to climate change in the northern hemisphere and even the world. In the northern part of the TP， there is the largest desert group in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Compared with other underlying surfaces including the TP， the desert has the characteristics of large surface albedo， low soil heat capacity， and low water content， which is an important source of sensible heat in the earth system and even plays significant roles in global and regional energy balance and climate changes. TP and its northern vast desert area—The two important terrestrial systems constitute a unique symbiotic geographical unit in the world， where land-atmosphere coupling must be related to each other through a certain process. Drought is a common and extremely serious natural disaster in the world. China is one of the countries where droughts occur most frequently. Under the background of climate change， droughts also tend to occur more frequently and worsen， especially in the north China. The causes of drought are complex， and they have always been a difficult and hot spot for research in related fields both at home and abroad. Starting from the land-atmosphere coupling process of the plateau-desert symbiosis geographic unit， what mechanism is used for the formation and evolution of drought in northern China is a frontier topic worth exploring. This article summarizes the latest advances in atmospheric scientific research on TP and the research on arid and semi-arid land surface processes including desert areas in recent years，from which we condense the key scientific issues in the research on the impact of the land-atmosphere coupling process between TP and the northern desert on drought in China for the purpose of reference and helping scientific and technological workers to carry out related exploration.