Trend of Surface Air Temperature in Eastern China and Associated Large-Scale Climate Variability over the Last 100 Years

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 4693-4703 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Zhao ◽  
Phil Jones ◽  
Lijuan Cao ◽  
Zhongwei Yan ◽  
Shuyao Zha ◽  
...  

Abstract Using the reconstructed continuous and homogenized surface air temperature (SAT) series for 16 cities across eastern China (where the greatest industrial developments in China have taken place) back to the nineteenth century, the authors examine linear trends of SAT. The regional-mean SAT over eastern China shows a warming trend of 1.52°C (100 yr)−1 during 1909–2010. It mainly occurred in the past 4 decades and this agrees well with the variability in another SAT series developed from a much denser station network (over 400 sites) across this part of China since 1951. This study collects population data for 245 sites (from these 400+ locations) and split these into five equally sized groups based on population size. Comparison of these five groups across different durations from 30 to 60 yr in length indicates that differences in population only account for between 9% and 24% of the warming since 1951. To show that a larger urbanization impact is very unlikely, the study additionally determines how much can be explained by some large-scale climate indices. Anomalies of large-scale climate indices such as the tropical Indian Ocean SST and the Siberian atmospheric circulation systems account for at least 80% of the total warming trends.

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 3317-3348 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Brutel-Vuilmet ◽  
M. Ménégoz ◽  
G. Krinner

Abstract. The 20th century seasonal Northern Hemisphere land snow cover as simulated by available CMIP5 model output is compared to observations. On average, the models reproduce the observed snow cover extent very well, but the significant trend towards a~reduced spring snow cover extent over the 1979–2005 is underestimated. We show that this is linked to the simulated Northern Hemisphere extratropical land warming trend over the same period, which is underestimated, although the models, on average, correctly capture the observed global warming trend. There is a good linear correlation between hemispheric seasonal spring snow cover extent and boreal large-scale annual mean surface air temperature in the models, supported by available observations. This relationship also persists in the future and is independent of the particular anthropogenic climate forcing scenario. Similarly, the simulated linear correlation between the hemispheric seasonal spring snow cover extent and global mean annual mean surface air temperature is stable in time. However, the sensitivity of the Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover to global mean surface air temperature changes is underestimated at present because of the underestimate of the boreal land temperature change amplification.


Author(s):  
Rui Yao ◽  
Lunche Wang ◽  
Xin Huang ◽  
Xiaojun Wu ◽  
Liu Yang ◽  
...  

The global surface air temperature (Ta) has increased significantly in the past several decades. However, it remains disputable how much effect rapid urbanization has had on warming trends in mainland China. In this study, a gridded Ta dataset was created using satellite data. Then, a series of satellite-based methods to evaluate the contribution of urbanization to warming were developed. Subsequently, the contribution of urbanization to warming during 2001–2018 was estimated. The national average Ta was found to have increased significantly (0.23°C/decade) in mainland China. At the national scale, the contribution of urbanization to warming was negligible (less than 1%) since built-up areas account for only approximately 2.66% of the area of China. At the regional scale, the contribution of urbanization was also small in most areas and was even negative in some areas. At the local scale, the contributions of urbanization to warming were 53.18%, 54.30% and 47.25% for the mean, maximum and minimum Ta, respectively, averaged for 31 major cities. This study demonstrated that the contribution of urbanization to warming was significant at the local scale, while the contribution of urbanization to large-scale warming was limited. The contribution of urbanization was underestimated at the local scale but overestimated at the national and regional scales by many previous studies due to the sparse and uneven distribution of meteorological stations.


2001 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 493-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond C. Smith ◽  
Sharon E. Stammerjohn

AbstractThe western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) region has experienced a statistically significant warming trend during the past half-century. In addition, a statistically significant anticorrelation between air temperatures and sea-ice extent, as determined from satellite passive-microwave data during the past two decades, has been observed for this region. Consistent with this strong coupling, sea-ice extent in the WAP area has trended down during this period of satellite observations. Further, much of the variability in both air temperature and sea ice in the WAP region has been shown to be influenced by contrasting maritime (warm, moist) and continental (cold, dry) climate regimes. As part of the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research program, the ecological influence of these trends and variability is being studied, and effects have already been demonstrated at all trophic levels. Here we extend earlier observations to include the past decade and focus on the annual cycles of air temperature and sea-ice extent for the past few years, with the aim of placing these recent observations within the context of changes seen in the longer-term records. The more recent years have seen an increasing maritime influence in the WAP region, with corresponding effects on the marine ecosystem.


2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Brutel-Vuilmet ◽  
M. Ménégoz ◽  
G. Krinner

Abstract. The 20th century seasonal Northern Hemisphere (NH) land snow cover as simulated by available CMIP5 model output is compared to observations. On average, the models reproduce the observed snow cover extent very well, but the significant trend towards a reduced spring snow cover extent over the 1979–2005 period is underestimated (observed: (−3.4 ± 1.1)% per decade; simulated: (−1.0 ± 0.3)% per decade). We show that this is linked to the simulated Northern Hemisphere extratropical spring land warming trend over the same period, which is also underestimated, although the models, on average, correctly capture the observed global warming trend. There is a good linear correlation between the extent of hemispheric seasonal spring snow cover and boreal large-scale spring surface air temperature in the models, supported by available observations. This relationship also persists in the future and is independent of the particular anthropogenic climate forcing scenario. Similarly, the simulated linear relationship between the hemispheric seasonal spring snow cover extent and global mean annual mean surface air temperature is stable in time. However, the slope of this relationship is underestimated at present (observed: (−11.8 ± 2.7)% °C−1; simulated: (−5.1 ± 3.0)% °C−1) because the trend towards lower snow cover extent is underestimated, while the recent global warming trend is correctly represented.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 1925-1937 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiyan Zuo ◽  
Song Yang ◽  
Kang Xu ◽  
Renhe Zhang ◽  
Qiong He ◽  
...  

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