The Spatial and Temporal Variation of Temperature in the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau during 1971–2015

Xuejia Wang,Guoning Wan,Meixue Yang,Zhaochen Liu

doi:10.3390/atmos8110214

Abstract

The Tibetan Plateau (TP), which is well known as “The Third Pole”, is of great importance to climate change in East Asia, and even the whole world. In this paper, we selected the monthly temperature (including the monthly mean and the maximum and minimum temperature) during 1971–2015 from 88 meteorological stations on the TP. The data were tested and corrected by using Penalized Maximal F Test (PMFT) based on RHtest. Afterwards, based on the Mann-Kendall test, we analyzed the seasonal and time-interval characteristics on each station in detail. The results show that the TP has experienced significant warming during 1971–2015. When comparing the selected elements, the warming rate of minimum temperature (Tmin) is the largest, the mean temperature (Tmean) comes second, and the maximum temperature (Tmax) is the smallest. The warming trends in four seasons are significant, and the highest warming rate occurs in winter. The warming trend on the TP has a prominent spatial difference, with a large warming rate on the eastern parts and a small one on the central regions. In different seasons, the warming trends on the TP have different characteristics in the time interval. Since 1998, the warming rate in spring increased markedly, spring has displaced winter as the season with the highest warming rate recently.

Highlights

In the context of global warming, temperature has gradually become one of the meteorological parameters of great concern
The results show that the warming rate of mean annual maximum and minimum temperature decreased from 1998 to 2012, with a rate of over 0.4 ◦ C decade−1 during the period 1961–1997, and the greatest decrease occurred in winter
Yan and Liu [13] have analyzed the warming rates at elevations over 2000 m, 3000 m, and 4000 m, respectively over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) from 1961 to 2012, and the results indicate that the warming is more pronounced on the stations with higher elevations

Summary

Introduction

In the context of global warming, temperature has gradually become one of the meteorological parameters of great concern. The surface temperature has been rising significantly for nearly one century, especially for nearly fifty years [1]. The global warming brings meteorological disasters, such as drought, floods, glacial recession, and extreme high temperature events, which could cause harm to the humans [3,4]. The trend of surface temperature in China is consistent with the global state, and it has significant spatial difference. In the past 50 years, the surface temperature has warmed by 1.40 ◦ C in China, which is nearly twice than that on the global scale (0.72 ◦ C) [5]. Li et al [9] have analyzed the extreme temperature indices in China during nearly 50 years by using homogenized temperature

Methods

Results

Conclusion