Discrepant trends in global land-surface and air temperatures controlled by vegetation biophysical feedbacks

Fei Kan; Xu Lian; Jiangpeng Cui; Anping Chen; Jiafu Mao; Mingzhu He; Hao Xu; Shilong Piao

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ad0680

Discrepant trends in global land-surface and air temperatures controlled by vegetation biophysical feedbacks

Fei Kan, Xu Lian, Jiangpeng Cui, Anping Chen, Jiafu Mao, Mingzhu He, Hao Xu, Shilong Piao

Earth Systems Modeling

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Satellite-based land surface temperature (Ts) with continuous global coverage is increasingly used as a complementary measure for air temperature (Ta), yet whether they observe similar temporal trends remains unknown. Here, we systematically analyzed the trend of the difference between satellite-based Ts and station-based Ta (Ts-Ta) over 2003-2022. We found the global land warming rate inffered from Ts was on average 42.6% slower than that from Ta (Ts-Ta trend: −0.011 °C yr⁻¹, p = 0.06) during daytime of summer. This slower Ts-based warming was attributed to recent Earth greening, which effectively cooled canopy surface through enhancing evapotranspiration and turbulent heat transfer. However, Ts showed faster warming than Ta during summer nighttime (0.015 °C yr⁻¹, p < 0.01), winter daytime (0.0069 °C yr⁻¹, p = 0.08) and winter nighttime (0.0042 °C yr⁻¹, p = 0.16), when vegetation activity is limited by temperature and solar radiation. Our results indicate potential biases in assessments of atmospheric warming and the vegetation-air temperature feedbacks using satellite-observed surface temperature proxies.

Original language	English
Article number	124013
Journal	Environmental Research Letters
Volume	18
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad0680
State	Published - Dec 1 2023

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41988101). J F M’s contribution was supported by the Reducing Uncertainties in Biogeochemical Interactions through Synthesis and Computation Science Focus Area funded through the Regional and Global Model Analysis Program in the Earth and Environmental Systems Sciences Division of the Biological and Environmental Research office in the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for DOE under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. Thanks to X L and S L P for designing the research. Thanks to all contributors for the interpretation of the results and to the text.

Keywords

Earth greening
air temperature
land surface temperature

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10.1088/1748-9326/ad0680

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@article{9892cea52128451ab65b9dc7297c770b,

title = "Discrepant trends in global land-surface and air temperatures controlled by vegetation biophysical feedbacks",

abstract = "Satellite-based land surface temperature (Ts) with continuous global coverage is increasingly used as a complementary measure for air temperature (Ta), yet whether they observe similar temporal trends remains unknown. Here, we systematically analyzed the trend of the difference between satellite-based Ts and station-based Ta (Ts-Ta) over 2003-2022. We found the global land warming rate inffered from Ts was on average 42.6\% slower than that from Ta (Ts-Ta trend: −0.011 °C yr−1, p = 0.06) during daytime of summer. This slower Ts-based warming was attributed to recent Earth greening, which effectively cooled canopy surface through enhancing evapotranspiration and turbulent heat transfer. However, Ts showed faster warming than Ta during summer nighttime (0.015 °C yr−1, p < 0.01), winter daytime (0.0069 °C yr−1, p = 0.08) and winter nighttime (0.0042 °C yr−1, p = 0.16), when vegetation activity is limited by temperature and solar radiation. Our results indicate potential biases in assessments of atmospheric warming and the vegetation-air temperature feedbacks using satellite-observed surface temperature proxies.",

keywords = "Earth greening, air temperature, land surface temperature",

author = "Fei Kan and Xu Lian and Jiangpeng Cui and Anping Chen and Jiafu Mao and Mingzhu He and Hao Xu and Shilong Piao",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.",

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T1 - Discrepant trends in global land-surface and air temperatures controlled by vegetation biophysical feedbacks

AU - Kan, Fei

AU - Lian, Xu

AU - Cui, Jiangpeng

AU - Chen, Anping

AU - Mao, Jiafu

AU - He, Mingzhu

AU - Xu, Hao

AU - Piao, Shilong

PY - 2023/12/1

Y1 - 2023/12/1

N2 - Satellite-based land surface temperature (Ts) with continuous global coverage is increasingly used as a complementary measure for air temperature (Ta), yet whether they observe similar temporal trends remains unknown. Here, we systematically analyzed the trend of the difference between satellite-based Ts and station-based Ta (Ts-Ta) over 2003-2022. We found the global land warming rate inffered from Ts was on average 42.6% slower than that from Ta (Ts-Ta trend: −0.011 °C yr−1, p = 0.06) during daytime of summer. This slower Ts-based warming was attributed to recent Earth greening, which effectively cooled canopy surface through enhancing evapotranspiration and turbulent heat transfer. However, Ts showed faster warming than Ta during summer nighttime (0.015 °C yr−1, p < 0.01), winter daytime (0.0069 °C yr−1, p = 0.08) and winter nighttime (0.0042 °C yr−1, p = 0.16), when vegetation activity is limited by temperature and solar radiation. Our results indicate potential biases in assessments of atmospheric warming and the vegetation-air temperature feedbacks using satellite-observed surface temperature proxies.

AB - Satellite-based land surface temperature (Ts) with continuous global coverage is increasingly used as a complementary measure for air temperature (Ta), yet whether they observe similar temporal trends remains unknown. Here, we systematically analyzed the trend of the difference between satellite-based Ts and station-based Ta (Ts-Ta) over 2003-2022. We found the global land warming rate inffered from Ts was on average 42.6% slower than that from Ta (Ts-Ta trend: −0.011 °C yr−1, p = 0.06) during daytime of summer. This slower Ts-based warming was attributed to recent Earth greening, which effectively cooled canopy surface through enhancing evapotranspiration and turbulent heat transfer. However, Ts showed faster warming than Ta during summer nighttime (0.015 °C yr−1, p < 0.01), winter daytime (0.0069 °C yr−1, p = 0.08) and winter nighttime (0.0042 °C yr−1, p = 0.16), when vegetation activity is limited by temperature and solar radiation. Our results indicate potential biases in assessments of atmospheric warming and the vegetation-air temperature feedbacks using satellite-observed surface temperature proxies.

KW - Earth greening

KW - air temperature

KW - land surface temperature

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85177492552

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DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/ad0680

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85177492552

SN - 1748-9318

VL - 18

JO - Environmental Research Letters

JF - Environmental Research Letters

IS - 12

M1 - 124013

ER -

Discrepant trends in global land-surface and air temperatures controlled by vegetation biophysical feedbacks

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