Abstract
The vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is an important variable used to characterize atmospheric aridity. This paper analyses the spatial and temporal characteristics of the decadal abrupt change (DAC) in the global land VPD after 1980 using monthly scale data from the Climatic Research Unit. The results show that 60.5% of the global land area underwent a significantly increased decadal abrupt change (IDAC) in the VPD, and the persistent IDAC of the VPD was obvious in the middle and low latitudes of Eurasia, Africa and parts of South America but not in central North America or Western Siberia. From 1980 to 2020, most regions experienced no more than two persistent IDACs, while more than two significant increases occurred mainly around the Mediterranean and in eastern South America. The persistent IDAC occurred relatively early in the middle and low latitudes of Eurasia, Africa, and eastern South America and after 2000 in the high latitude regions, Eastern Europe, and near the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The regions where the persistent IDAC lasted longer than 10 years mainly included North Africa, West Asia, eastern South America, and parts of East Asia, indicating that the persistent increases in atmospheric aridity in these regions were obvious. In general, the persistent IDAC that began in 1993–2000 was significantly more than that occurred in other periods and lasted longer than that before 1990, suggesting that the land area experiencing an abrupt increase has an expansion after the 1990s and that the role of water limitation in this persistent IDAC in Central Asia and most of China strengthened. In addition, the VPD showed another large-scale persistent IDAC over the global land region in 2009, indicating that global atmospheric aridity intensified over the last decade. At the same time, in a few global regions, the VPD has exhibited decreased decadal abrupt changes (DDACs) with durations shorter than 2 years.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFF0801703) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42175053 & 41822503).
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Cheng, M., Zuo, Z., Lin, Z. et al. The decadal abrupt change in the global land vapor pressure deficit. Sci. China Earth Sci. 66, 1521–1534 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-022-1117-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-022-1117-x