What is it about?
There are a large variety of documentations about the spatiotemporal variations of extreme temperatures of air on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the so-called the Third Pole. However, few are reported about the changes in extreme temperatures on the ground surface. Actually, the ground surface temperature are far more important than the air temperature due to its influence and response on the underlying conditions of vegetation and landcover changes. In this study, the difference of the air temperature and ground surface temperature, extreme indices of the ground surface temperature in the Three-River Source Regions (TRSR) are reported.
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Why is it important?
The Three-River Source Regions (TRSR) is a key region for ecological barrier of China. Permafrost occupies approximately 61.0% of the total area of the TRSR. Most permafrost in the TRSR is warm, thin, dry and particularly sensitive to climate changes and anthropological activities. While in situ observations of permafrost temperatures are sparse. Therefore, the observation of ground surface temperature from meteorological stations as the substitutions to study the variations of permafrost is particularly important.
Perspectives
We've found that different spatiotemporal patterns of ground surface temperature extremes compared to those of air temperature may result from greater warming of the ground surface. The findings may have implications for variations of surface energy balance, sensible heat flux, ecology, and hydrology, as well as permafrost.
Dr Dongliang Luo
Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Spatiotemporal changes in extreme ground surface temperatures and the relationship with air temperatures in the Three-River Source Regions during 1980–2013, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, July 2015, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s00704-015-1543-6.
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