Combined influence of soil moisture and atmospheric humidity on land surface temperature under different climatic background

Kang Jiang; Zhihua Pan; Feifei Pan; Adriaan J Teuling; Guolin Han; Pingli An; Xiao Chen; Jialin Wang; Yu Song; Lu Cheng; Ziyuan Zhang; Na Huang; Shangqian Ma; Riping Gao; Zhenzhen Zhang; Jingyu Men; Xiaoqin Lv; Zhiqiang Dong

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106837

Combined influence of soil moisture and atmospheric humidity on land surface temperature under different climatic background

iScience. 2023 May 9;26(6):106837. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106837. eCollection 2023 Jun 16.

Authors

Kang Jiang^{1

2}, Zhihua Pan^{1

2}, Feifei Pan³, Adriaan J Teuling⁴, Guolin Han⁵, Pingli An^{6

7}, Xiao Chen^{1

2}, Jialin Wang^{1

6}, Yu Song^{1

2}, Lu Cheng⁸, Ziyuan Zhang^{1

2}, Na Huang^{1

2}, Shangqian Ma^{1

2}, Riping Gao^{1

2}, Zhenzhen Zhang^{1

2}, Jingyu Men^{1

2}, Xiaoqin Lv^{1

2}, Zhiqiang Dong⁹

Affiliations

¹ College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
² CMA-CAU Jointly Laboratory of Agriculture Addressing Climate Change, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Geography and the Environment, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA.
⁴ Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands.
⁵ China Meteorological Administration Training Center, Beijing, China.
⁶ College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Land Quality, Ministry of Land and Resources, Beijing, China.
⁸ National Meteorological Center, Beijing, China.
⁹ Shandong Provincial Climate Center, Jinan, China.

Abstract

Soil moisture (SM) and atmospheric humidity (AH) are crucial climatic variables that significantly affect the climate system. However, the combined influencing mechanisms of SM and AH on the land surface temperature (LST) under global warming are still unclear. Here, we systematically analyzed the interrelationships among annual mean values of SM, AH, and LST using ERA5-Land reanalysis data and revealed the role of SM and AH on the spatiotemporal variations of LST through mechanism analysis and regression methods. The results showed that net radiation, SM, and AH could well model the long-term variability of LST well and explain 92% of the variability. Moreover, SM played an essential and different role under the different LST backgrounds. The AH always displayed a greenhouse effect on the LST. This study provides essential insights into the global climate change mechanism from the surface hydrothermal processes perspective.

Keywords: Atmospheric science; Earth sciences; Earth-surface processes; Remote sensing.