Relationship between temperature trend magnitude, elevation and mean temperature in the Tibetan Plateau from homogenized surface stations and reanalysis data

You, Qinglong; Kang, Shichang; Pepin, Nick; Flügel, Wolfgang-Albert; Yan, Yuping; Behrawan, Houshang; Huang, Jie

doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2010.01.020

Cited by 247 publications

(167 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…2 and S1 in the Supplement). These results are in accordance with the reports from NCEP-R1, NCEP-R2 and ERA-40 (You et al, 2010;Ma et al, 2008;Zhao et al, 2008). The elevation differences ( Height; Figs.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

On the suitability of current atmospheric reanalyses for regional warming studies over China

Zhou

Wang

2018

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. Reanalyses are widely used because they add value to routine observations by generating physically or dynamically consistent and spatiotemporally complete atmospheric fields. Existing studies include extensive discussions of the temporal suitability of reanalyses in studies of global change. This study adds to this existing work by investigating the suitability of reanalyses in studies of regional climate change, in which land-atmosphere interactions play a comparatively important role. In this study, surface air temperatures (T a ) from 12 current reanalysis products are investigated; in particular, the spatial patterns of trends in T a are examined using homogenized measurements of T a made at ∼ 2200 meteorological stations in China from 1979 to 2010. The results show that ∼ 80 % of the mean differences in T a between the reanalyses and the in situ observations can be attributed to the differences in elevation between the stations and the model grids. Thus, the T a climatologies display good skill, and these findings rebut previous reports of biases in T a . However, the biases in theT a trends in the reanalyses diverge spatially (standard deviation = 0.15-0.30 • C decade −1 using 1 • × 1 • grid cells). The simulated biases in the trends in T a correlate well with those of precipitation frequency, surface incident solar radiation (R s ) and atmospheric downward longwave radiation (L d ) among the reanalyses (r = −0.83, 0.80 and 0.77; p < 0.1) when the spatial patterns of these variables are considered. The biases in the trends in T a over southern China (on the order of −0.07 • C decade −1 ) are caused by biases in the trends in R s , L d and precipitation frequency on the order of 0.10, −0.08 and −0.06 • C decade −1 , respectively. The biases in the trends in T a over northern China (on the order of −0.12 • C decade −1 ) result jointly from those in L d and precipitation frequency. Therefore, improving the simulation of precipitation frequency and R s helps to maximize the signal component corresponding to regional climate. In addition, the analysis of T a observations helps represent regional warming in ERA-Interim and JRA-55. Incorporating vegetation dynamics in reanalyses and the use of accurate aerosol information, as in the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2), would lead to improvements in the modelling of regional warming. The use of the ensemble technique adopted in the twentieth-century atmospheric model ensemble ERA-20CM significantly narrows the uncertainties associated with regional warming in reanalyses (standard deviation = 0.15 • C decade −1 ).

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

On the suitability of current atmospheric reanalyses for regional warming studies over China

Zhou

Wang

2018

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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“…Against the background of the global average surface temperature increase (especially since about 1950) (Solomon et al 2007), and the rapid retreat of mountain glaciers around the world (particularly in the Himalaya, Andes and Alps) (Solomon et al 2007), huge efforts have been made to explore the features and impacts of climate change in high-elevation regions Beniston 2003;Rangwala and Miller 2012). However, despite numerous studies in the past decades (Beniston and Rebetez 1996;Diaz and Bradley 1997;Liu and Hou 1998;Liu and Chen 2000;Vuille and Bradley 2000;Pepin and Losleben 2002;Vuille et al 2003;Pepin and Seidel 2005;Diaz and Eischeid 2007;Appenzeller et al 2008;Pepin and Lundquist 2008;You et al 2008You et al , 2010Liu et al 2009;Lu et al 2010), our understanding of whether elevationdependent warming commonly occurs in high-elevation regions, and whether high-elevation regions are warming faster than their low elevation counterparts, remains uncertain (Rangwala and Miller 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While several studies reported positive evidence (Beniston and Rebetez 1996;Diaz and Bradley 1997;Liu and Hou 1998;Liu and Chen 2000;Liu et al 2009), other studies found no evidence (Pepin and Seidel 2005;You et al 2008;You et al 2010) or even negative evidence (Vuille and Bradley 2000;Pepin and Losleben 2002;Lu et al 2010) of elevation dependency in surface warming based on the surface observations, though most climate models have found enhanced warming in the high-elevation regions (Giorgi et al 1997;Fyfe and Flato 1999;Snyder et al 2002;Chen et al 2003;Kotlarski et al 2012). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it should be pointed out that no statistically significant altitudinal dependency of temperature increase has been demonstrated for either the Tibetan Plateau (You et al 2008(You et al , 2010 or the Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings as a whole (Liu and Hou 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2; Table 1) using the simple linear regression method as in previous studies (Beniston and Rebetez 1996;You et al 2008You et al , 2010, and perform a brief attribution study on the mixed results from the analysis, with the aim of showing the necessity of the extraction of altitudinal warming components from the station warming rates for the detection of altitudinal amplification within a high-elevation region. We focus on the examination of altitudinal amplification in the eight high-elevation regions using the new function equations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Recent warming amplification over high elevation regions across the globe

2013

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Despite numerous studies in recent decades, our understanding of whether warming amplification is prevalent in high-elevation regions remains uncertain. In this work, on the basis of annual mean temperature series of 2,367 stations around the globe, we examine both altitudinal amplification and regional amplification in the high elevation regions across the globe using new methodology. We develop the function equations of warming components of altitude, latitude and longitude and station warming rates for individual stations within a high-elevation region based on basic mathematic and physical principles, and find a significant altitudinal amplification trend for the Tibetan Plateau, Loess Plateau, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Alps, United States Rockies, Appalachian Mountains, South American Andes and Mongolian Plateau. At the same time, we detect a greater warming for four high-elevation regions than their low elevation counterparts for the paired regions available. These suggest that warming amplification in high-elevation regions is an intrinsic feature of recent global warming.

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Regional air pollution brightening reverses the greenhouse gases induced warming‐elevation relationship

Zeng

Chen

Ciais

et al. 2015

Geophysical Research Letters

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Mountain waters, glaciers, hazards, and biodiversity are vulnerable to the impacts of global warming. Warming is projected to amplify over mountains by global climate models, yet meteorological records do not show a uniform acceleration of warming with elevation. Here we explore warming‐elevation relationships using records from 2660 meteorological stations and determine that the vertical gradient of warming rate varies with location. The warming is faster at higher altitudes in Asia and western North America, but the opposite is observed over Central Europe and eastern North America which have received more short‐wave radiation (brightening) associated with a decrease of aerosols and clouds since the 1980s. We found that altitudinal differences in air pollution (brightening), with observations showing more short‐wave radiation received at low altitudes than at mountains, modulate the warming‐elevation relationships. The advance in understanding of the drivers of regional climate change will contribute to the formulation of strategies for climate change mitigation at high elevations.

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Relationship between temperature trend magnitude, elevation and mean temperature in the Tibetan Plateau from homogenized surface stations and reanalysis data

Cited by 247 publications

References 27 publications

On the suitability of current atmospheric reanalyses for regional warming studies over China

On the suitability of current atmospheric reanalyses for regional warming studies over China

Recent warming amplification over high elevation regions across the globe

Regional air pollution brightening reverses the greenhouse gases induced warming‐elevation relationship

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