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Simulations of the spatiotemporal distribution of air constituents such as ozone and NO 2 on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) can be affected by many factors such as the altitude of the observational site. In the present study, we used a mesoscale meteorological model coupled with chemistry (WRF-Chem) with two different anthropogenic emission inventories (MEIC and MEIC + EDGAR), to investigate the association of the simulation accuracy of ozone and NO 2 on TP with the altitude of the observational sites. Statistical parameters such as the correlation coefficient (r) and the index of agreement (IOA) were also calculated to evaluate the model performance in capturing the concentration change of these two air constituents (i.e., ozone and NO 2). The results revealed that when only the MEIC emission inventory is implemented, the deviation between the model simulations and the observations becomes larger with the increase of the altitude of the city. Moreover, it was also found that when the EDGAR emission inventory was added into the model (i.e., MEIC + EDGAR scenario), the negative dependence of the simulation accuracy of ozone on the altitude becomes weaker than that using only MEIC inventory, due to the change in ozone simulations in high-altitude cities. In contrast, simulation results of NO 2 using two different emission inventories were found to be similar to each other. • The accuracy of ozone and NO 2 simulations on Tibetan Plateau depends negatively on the altitude of the cities. • The simulated NO 2 in border areas of Tibetan Plateau is only slightly affected by emissions from regions outside China. • Observational data from 14 cities on TP were used to assess the model behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]