Abstract
To quantify the impact of urbanization on changes in observed surface air temperature and extremes, a homogenized dataset of daily mean, maximum and minimum temperature (T m, T max and T min) observations at 20 stations in Greater Beijing (GBJ) from 1978 to 2008 is analyzed. In contrast with previous studies, a cluster analysis is done to objectively classify observing stations into four categories (urbanized, suburban, rural and mountain), which is checked with remote-sensing night-light images since the 1990s. At urbanized sites, there is an added warming trend in annual mean T m representing an average of 10.9% (up to 18.4% or 0.12°C/decade at the most strongly influenced site) of overall warming. Corresponding contributions for T min are 12.7% (up to 20.8% or 0.19°C/decade) and 24% for diurnal temperature range DTR (up to 37.4% or 0.149°C/decade) over the last three decades. Although it has not had a significant impact on daytime records (T max), urbanization has enhanced the increasing (decreasing) trend of extremely warm (cold) nights by an average of 12.7% or 2.07 d/decade (29.0% or 5.06 d/decade) at the urbanized sites since the 1970s.
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Wang, J., Yan, Z., Li, Z. et al. Impact of urbanization on changes in temperature extremes in Beijing during 1978–2008. Chin. Sci. Bull. 58, 4679–4686 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-013-5976-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-013-5976-y