scholarly journals Global Patterns of Hottest, Coldest and Extreme Diurnal Variability on Earth

Author(s):  
Yunxia Zhao ◽  
Hamid Norouzi ◽  
Marzi Azarderakhsh ◽  
Amir AghaKouchak

AbstractMost previous studies of extreme temperatures have primarily focused on atmospheric temperatures. Using 18 years of the latest version of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature (LST) data, we globally investigate the spatial patterns of hot and cold extremes as well as diurnal temperature range (DTR). We show that the world’s highest LST of 80.8 °C, observed in the Lut Desert in Iran and the Sonoran Desert in Mexico, is over ten degrees above the previous global record of 70.7 °C observed in 2005. The coldest place on Earth is Antarctica with the record low temperature of -110.9 °C. The world’s maximum DTR of 81.8 °C is observed in a desert environment in China. We see strong latitudinal patterns in hot and cold extremes as well as DTR. Biomes worldwide are faced with different levels of temperature extremes and DTR: we observe the highest zonal average maximum LST of 61.1 ± 5.3 °C in the deserts and xeric shrublands; the lowest zonal average minimum LST of -66.6 ± 14.8 °C in the Tundra; and the highest zonal average maximum DTR of 43.5 ± 9.9 °C in the montane grasslands and shrublands. This global exploration of extreme LST and DTR across different biomes sheds light on the type of extremes different ecosystems are faced with.

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1315
Author(s):  
Xiaoying Ouyang ◽  
Dongmei Chen ◽  
Shugui Zhou ◽  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Jinxin Yang ◽  
...  

Satellite-derived lake surface water temperature (LSWT) measurements can be used for monitoring purposes. However, analyses based on the LSWT of Lake Ontario and the surrounding land surface temperature (LST) are scarce in the current literature. First, we provide an evaluation of the commonly used Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-derived LSWT/LST (MOD11A1 and MYD11A1) using in situ measurements near the area of where Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River and the Rideau Canal meet. The MODIS datasets agreed well with ground sites measurements from 2015–2017, with an R2 consistently over 0.90. Among the different ground measurement sites, the best results were achieved for Hill Island, with a correlation of 0.99 and centered root mean square difference (RMSD) of 0.73 K for Aqua/MYD nighttime. The validated MODIS datasets were used to analyze the temperature trend over the study area from 2001 to 2018, through a linear regression method with a Mann–Kendall test. A slight warming trend was found, with 95% confidence over the ground sites from 2003 to 2012 for the MYD11A1-Night datasets. The warming trend for the whole region, including both the lake and the land, was about 0.17 K year−1 for the MYD11A1 datasets during 2003–2012, whereas it was about 0.06 K year−1 during 2003–2018. There was also a spatial pattern of warming, but the trend for the lake region was not obviously different from that of the land region. For the monthly trends, the warming trends for September and October from 2013 to 2018 are much more apparent than those of other months.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1671-1707
Author(s):  
J. Kala ◽  
J. P. Evans ◽  
A. J. Pitman ◽  
C. B. Schaaf ◽  
M. Decker ◽  
...  

Abstract. Land surface albedo, the fraction of incoming solar radiation reflected by the land surface, is a key component of the earth system. This study evaluates snow-free surface albedo simulations by the Community Atmosphere Biosphere Land Exchange (CABLEv1.4b) model with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) albedo. We compare results from two offline simulations over the Australian continent, one with prescribed background snow-free and vegetation-free soil albedo derived from MODIS (the control), and the other with a simple parameterisation based on soil moisture and colour. The control simulation shows that CABLE simulates albedo over Australia reasonably well, with differences with MODIS within an acceptable range. Inclusion of the parameterisation for soil albedo however introduced large errors for the near infra red albedo, especially for desert regions of central Australia. These large errors were not fully explained by errors in soil moisture or parameter uncertainties, but are similar to errors in albedo in other land surface models which use the same soil albedo scheme. Although this new parameterisation has introduced larger errors as compared to prescribing soil albedo, dynamic soil moisture-albedo feedbacks are now enabled in CABLE. Future directions for albedo parameterisations development in CABLE are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Getachew Bayable ◽  
Getnet Alemu

Abstract The aggravating deforestation, industrialization and urbanization are increasingly becoming the principal causes for environmental challenges worldwide. As a result, satellite-based remote sensing helps to explore the environmental challenges spatially and temporally. This investigation analyzed the spatiotemporal discrepancies in Land Surface Temperature (LST) and the link with elevation in Amhara region, Ethiopia. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST data (2001–2020) was used. The pixel-based linear regression model was employed to explore the spatiotemporal discrepancies of LST changes pixel-wise. Furthermore, Sen's slope and Mann-Kendall were used for determining the extent of temporal shifts of the areal average LST and evaluating trends in areal average LST values, respectively. Coefficient of Variation (CV) was calculated to examine spatial and temporal discrepancies in seasonal and annual LST for each pixel. The distribution of average seasonal LST spatially ranged from 43.45–16.62℃, 39.89–14.59℃, 50.39-21.102℃ and 43.164–20.39℃ for autumn (September-November), summer (June-August), spring (March-May) and winter (December-February) seasons, respectively. The seasonal LST CV varied from1.096-10.72%, 0.7–11.06%, 1.29–14.76% and 2.19–10.35% for average autumn, summer, spring and winter seasons, respectively. The seasonal spatial LST trend varied from − 0.7 − 0.16, -0.4-0.224, 0.6 − 0.19 and − 0.6 − 0.32 for average autumn, summer, spring and winter seasons, respectively. Besides, the annual spatial LST slope varied from − 0.58 − 0.17. An insignificantly declining trend in LST shown at 0.036℃ yr− 1, 0.041℃ yr− 1, 0.074℃ yr− 1, 0.005℃ yr− 1 in autumn, summer, spring and winter seasons (P < 0.05), respectively. Moreover, the annual variations of mean LST decreased insignificantly at 0.046℃ yr− 1. Generally, the LST is tremendously variable in space and time and negatively correlated with an elevation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Shang ◽  
Yunjun Yao ◽  
Junming Yang ◽  
Xiaowei Chen ◽  
Xiangyi Bei ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;The latent heat flux (LE) governs the associated heat flux from the interactions between the land surface and its atmosphere and plays an important role in the surface water and energy balance. The Qilian Mountains is the largest marginal mountain system in the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. An accurate representation of spatio-temporal patterns of LE over Qilian Mountains is essential in many terrestrial biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere applications. Various satellite-derived LE products have been widely used to estimate terrestrial LE, yet each&amp;#160;individual LE&amp;#160;product exhibits large discrepancies. To reduce uncertainties from individual product and improve terrestrial LE estimation over Qilian Mountains, we produced five satellite-derived LE products using traditional algorithms based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI, LAI products and China Meteorological Forcing Dataset (CMFD), and implemented the fusion of these five LE products using Extremely Randomized Trees (Extra-Trees) combining information from ground-based measurements. A validation using ground-based measurements was applied at different plant function types and the validation results demonstrate that the fusion product using Extra-Trees outperformed all the LE products used in the fusion method. Comparing with three other machine learning fusion models such as Gradient Boosting Regression Tree (GBRT), Random Forest (RF) and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), Extra-Trees exhibits the best performance in terms of both training and validation accuracy. This fusion LE product also outperformed when compared against two state-of-the-art global LE products such as Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The fusion LE product showed improvements in the linear correlation, bias and RMSE at different plant function types. Our results suggest that the fusion method using Extra-Trees could be successfully applied to other region and to enhance the estimation of other hydrometeorological variables.&lt;/p&gt;


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