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Spatial dependence of diurnal temperature range trends on precipitation from 1950 to 2004

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An Erratum to this article was published on 04 April 2008

Abstract

This paper analyzes the spatial dependence of annual diurnal temperature range (DTR) trends from 1950–2004 on the annual climatology of three variables: precipitation, cloud cover, and leaf area index (LAI), by classifying the global land into various climatic regions based on the climatological annual precipitation. The regional average trends for annual minimum temperature (T min) and DTR exhibit significant spatial correlations with the climatological values of these three variables, while such correlation for annual maximum temperature (T max) is very weak. In general, the magnitude of the downward trend of DTR and the warming trend of T min decreases with increasing precipitation amount, cloud cover, and LAI, i.e., with stronger DTR decreasing trends over drier regions. Such spatial dependence of T min and DTR trends on the climatological precipitation possibly reflects large-scale effects of increased global greenhouse gases and aerosols (and associated changes in cloudiness, soil moisture, and water vapor) during the later half of the twentieth century.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for suggestions that improved the manuscript. This study was supported by the NSF grant ATM-0720619 and the DOE grant DE-FG02-01ER63198. H. Chen was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant 40405018 and the Foundation of Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster (KLME050205), NUIST, China. Y. Dai was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant 40225013 and the 111 Project of Ministry of Education and State Administration for Foreign Experts Affairs of China. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is supported by the National Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Liming Zhou

  2. National Center for Atmospheric Research, P. O. 3000, Boulder, CO, 80307, USA

    Aiguo Dai

  3. School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, 100875, Beijing, China

    Yongjiu Dai

  4. Climate Analysis Branch, National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC, 28801, USA

    Russell S. Vose

  5. Office of Research and Applications, NOAA/NESDIS, Camp Springs, MD, 20746, USA

    Cheng-Zhi Zou

  6. IMSG at NOAA/NESDIS, Camp Springs, MD, 20746, USA

    Yuhong Tian

  7. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, 210044, Nanjing, China

    Haishan Chen

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  1. Liming Zhou
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  2. Aiguo Dai
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  3. Yongjiu Dai
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  4. Russell S. Vose
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  5. Cheng-Zhi Zou
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Correspondence to Liming Zhou.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00382-008-0393-7

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Zhou, L., Dai, A., Dai, Y. et al. Spatial dependence of diurnal temperature range trends on precipitation from 1950 to 2004. Clim Dyn 32, 429–440 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-008-0387-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-008-0387-5

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