Urbanization and heterogeneous surface warming in eastern China

Abstract

With the homogeneity-adjusted surface air temperature (SAT) data at 312 stations in eastern China for 1979-2008 and the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) nighttime light data, the spatial heterogeneities of the SAT trends on different scales are detected with a spatial filtering (i.e. moving spatial anomaly) method, and the impact of urbanization in eastern China on surface warming is analyzed. Results show that the urbanization can induce a remarkable summer warming in Yangtze River Delta (YRD) city cluster region and a winter warming in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) city cluster region. The YRD warming in summer primarily results from the significant increasing of maximum temperature, with an estimated urban warming rate at 0.132–0.250°C per decade, accounting for 36%–68% of the total regional warming. The BTH warming in winter is primarily due to the remarkable increasing of minimum temperature, with an estimated urban warming rate at 0.102–0.214°C per decade, accounting for 12%–24% of the total regional warming. The temporal-spatial differences of urban warming effect may be attributed to the variation of regional climatic background and the change of anthropogenic heat release.