scholarly journals Changes of diurnal temperature range over East Asia from 1901 to 2018 and its relationship with precipitation

Author(s):  
Xiubao Sun ◽  
Chunzai Wang ◽  
Guoyu Ren

Abstract Since the 1950s, the East Asian diurnal temperature range (DTR) defined as the difference between the daily maximum (Tmax) and minimum temperatures (Tmin) has gradually decreased. Precipitation changes have often been cited as a primary cause of the change. However, the East Asian DTR change before 1950 and its relationship with precipitation remain unclear. Here, we mainly use a newly developed China Meteorological Administration-Land Surface Air Temperature dataset v1.1 to examine the climatological patterns and long-term trends of the DTR in East Asia from 1901 to 2018, and its relationship with precipitation. 1951–2018 mean annual DTR averaged over East Asia is approximately 10.0°C. East Asian DTR changes during 1901–2018 show two distinct characteristics. First, the DTR decrease significantly by about 0.60 ℃ during 1901–2018, and the decrease rate in the second half of the 20th century (by ~ 0.53 ℃) is significantly larger than that over the rest of the Northern Hemisphere and the global land due to rapid urbanization over East Asia. Second, before the 1950s, the DTR in East Asia shows a significant non-linear increase, while there are substantial differences in different latitude zones. The middle and high latitudes show the fluctuating rise and decline, respectively. Additionally, we find that the spatial pattern of long-term DTR change shows a significant negative correlation with mean precipitation patterns except in arid and semi-arid areas during 1901–2018. Besides, the decreasing trend of DTR is gradually become smaller from arid regions to humid regions during 1901–2018, mainly due to the difference between Tmax and Tmin warming rate is gradually become smaller.

2016 ◽  
Vol 121 (7) ◽  
pp. 3519-3533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Liu ◽  
Zhanqing Li ◽  
Xin Yang ◽  
Hainan Gong ◽  
Chao Li ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 795-804 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Xia

Abstract. This study aims to investigate the effect of total cloud cover (TCC) and sunshine duration (SSD) in the variation of diurnal temperature range (DTR) in China during 1954–2009. As expected, the inter-annual variation of DTR was mainly determined by TCC. Analysis of trends of 30-year moving windows of DTR and TCC time series showed that TCC changes could account for that of DTR in some cases. However, TCC decreased during 1954–2009, which did not support DTR reduction across China. DTRs under sky conditions such as clear, cloudy and overcast showed nearly the same decreasing rate that completely accounted for the overall DTR reduction. Nevertheless, correlation between SSD and DTR was weak and not significant under clear sky conditions in which aerosol direct radiative effect should be dominant. Furthermore, 30–60% of DTR reduction was associated with DTR decrease under overcast conditions in south China. This implies that aerosol direct radiative effect appears not to be one of the main factors determining long-term changes in DTR in China.


2016 ◽  
Vol 539 ◽  
pp. 313-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayeun Kim ◽  
Jihye Shin ◽  
Youn-Hee Lim ◽  
Yasushi Honda ◽  
Masahiro Hashizume ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (1) ◽  
pp. 681
Author(s):  
Jayeun Kim ◽  
Jihye Shin ◽  
Youn-Hee Lim ◽  
Yasushi Honda ◽  
Masahiro Hashizume ◽  
...  

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (19) ◽  
pp. 5061-5075 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Dietmüller ◽  
Michael Ponater ◽  
Robert Sausen ◽  
Klaus-Peter Hoinka ◽  
Susanne Pechtl

Abstract The direct impact of aircraft condensation trails (contrails) on surface temperature in regions of high aircraft density has been a matter of recent debate in climate research. Based on data analysis for the 3-day aviation grounding period over the United States, following the terrorists’ attack of 11 September 2001, a strong effect of contrails reducing the surface diurnal temperature range (DTR) has been suggested. Simulations with the global climate model ECHAM4 (including a contrail parameterization) and long-term time series of observation-based data are used for an independent cross check with longer data records, which allow statistically more reliable conclusions. The climate model underestimates the overall magnitude of the DTR compared to 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) data and station data, but it captures most features of the DTR global distribution and the correlation between DTR and either cloud amount or cloud forcing. The diurnal cycle of contrail radiative impact is also qualitatively consistent with expectations, both at the surface and at the top of the atmosphere. Nevertheless, there is no DTR response to contrails in a simulation that inhibits a global radiative forcing considerably exceeding the upper limit of contrail radiative impact according to current assessments. Long-term trends of DTR, the level of natural DTR variability, and the specific effect of high clouds on DTR are also analyzed. In both ECHAM4 and ERA-40 data, the correlation of cloud coverage or cloud radiative forcing with the DTR is mainly apparent for low clouds. None of the results herein indicates a significant impact of contrails on reducing the DTR. Hence, it is concluded that the respective hypothesis as derived from the 3-day aviation-free period over the United States lacks the required statistical backing.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 2715-2728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Liu ◽  
Jianping Guo ◽  
Wen Chen ◽  
Renguang Wu ◽  
Lin Wang ◽  
...  

The present study applies the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) method to investigate the large-scale pattern and the plausible dynamic processes of the boreal winter diurnal temperature range (DTR) changes in the East Asia (EA)–Australia (AUS) region based on the CRU Time Series version 4.00 (TS4.00) and NCEP–NCAR reanalysis datasets. Results show that the DTR changes during 1948–2015 are dominated by two distinct modes. The first mode, characterized by a same-sign variation over most regions of EA–AUS, represents a declining trend of DTR. The second mode, featuring an opposite-sign variation, represents the interannual variations in DTR. The two modes are both closely associated with the changes in cloud cover (CLT) caused by atmospheric circulation anomalies in EA–AUS. For the trend mode, anomalous southerly and northerly winds over EA and AUS, respectively, bring warm and wet air from low latitudes to EA–AUS, inducing an increase in CLT and thereby reducing DTR in most areas of EA–AUS. The changes of circulation are mainly due to the thermodynamic responses of atmosphere to the nonuniform warming in EA–AUS. In addition, the second mode of DTR is largely forced by the ENSO variability. The weakened Walker circulation associated with warm ENSO events triggers a pair of anomalous low-level anticyclones (south and north of the equator) over the western Pacific. The AUS region is under control of the southern anticyclone, thereby reducing the CLT and increasing the DTR in AUS as a result of anomalous descending motion. In contrast, the EA region is controlled by anomalous southerlies to the west of the northern anticyclone. The northward transports of moistures from the warm ocean increase the CLT, reducing DTR in EA.


2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 7051-7084 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Makowski ◽  
M. Wild ◽  
A. Ohmura

Abstract. It has been widely accepted that diurnal temperature range (DTR) decreased on a global scale during the second half of the twentieth century. Here we show however, that the long-term trend of annual DTR has reversed from a decrease to an increase during the 1970s in Western Europe and during the 1980s in Eastern Europe. The analysis is based on the high-quality dataset of the European Climate Assessment and Dataset Project, from which we selected approximately 200 stations, covering the area from Iceland to Algeria and from Turkey to Russia for 1950 to 2005. We investigate national and regional annual means as well as the pan-European mean with respect to trends and reversal periods. 17 of the 24 investigated regions including the pan-European mean show a statistical significant increase since 1990 at the latest. Of the remaining 7 regions, 2 show a non-significant increase, 3 a significant decrease and the remaining 2 no significant trend. The long-term change in DTR is governed by both surface shortwave and longwave radiation, the former of which has undergone a change from dimming to brightening. Consequently, we discuss the connections between DTR, shortwave radiation and sulfur emissions which are thought to be amongst the most important factors influencing the incoming solar radiation through the primary and secondary aerosol effect. We find reasonable agreement between trends in SO2 emissions, radiation and DTR in areas affected by high pollution. Consequently, we conclude that the long-term trends in DTR are mostly determined by changes in emissions and the associated changes in incoming solar radiation.


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