Reversed asymmetric warming of sub-diurnal temperature over land during recent decades

Ziqian Zhong; Bin He; Hans W Chen; Deliang Chen; Tianjun Zhou; Wenjie Dong; Cunde Xiao; Shang-Ping Xie; Xiangzhou Song; Lanlan Guo; Ruiqiang Ding; Lixia Zhang; Ling Huang; Wenping Yuan; Xingming Hao; Duoying Ji; Xiang Zhao

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-43007-6

Reversed asymmetric warming of sub-diurnal temperature over land during recent decades

Nat Commun. 2023 Nov 8;14(1):7189. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-43007-6.

Authors

Ziqian Zhong^{1

2}, Bin He³, Hans W Chen², Deliang Chen⁴, Tianjun Zhou⁵, Wenjie Dong⁶, Cunde Xiao⁷, Shang-Ping Xie⁸, Xiangzhou Song⁹, Lanlan Guo¹, Ruiqiang Ding⁷, Lixia Zhang⁵, Ling Huang¹⁰, Wenping Yuan⁶, Xingming Hao¹¹, Duoying Ji¹, Xiang Zhao¹²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
² Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Division of Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96, Gothenburg, Sweden.
³ State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China. hebin@bnu.edu.cn.
⁴ Regional Climate Group, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg, S-40530, Gothenburg, Sweden.
⁵ Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China.
⁶ School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
⁸ Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92039, USA.
⁹ Key Laboratory of Marine Hazards Forecasting, Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), Hohai University, Nanjing, 210024, China.
¹⁰ College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
¹¹ State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China.
¹² State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.

Abstract

In the latter half of the twentieth century, a significant climate phenomenon "diurnal asymmetric warming" emerged, wherein global land surface temperatures increased more rapidly during the night than during the day. However, recent episodes of global brightening and regional droughts and heatwaves have brought notable alterations to this asymmetric warming trend. Here, we re-evaluate sub-diurnal temperature patterns, revealing a substantial increase in the warming rates of daily maximum temperatures (T_max), while daily minimum temperatures have remained relatively stable. This shift has resulted in a reversal of the diurnal warming trend, expanding the diurnal temperature range over recent decades. The intensified T_max warming is attributed to a widespread reduction in cloud cover, which has led to increased solar irradiance at the surface. Our findings underscore the urgent need for enhanced scrutiny of recent temperature trends and their implications for the wider earth system.