Extreme ground surface temperatures in the Three-River Source Regions

What is it about?

There are a large variety of documentations about the spatiotemporal variations of extreme temperatures of air on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the so-called the Third Pole. However, few are reported about the changes in extreme temperatures on the ground surface. Actually, the ground surface temperature are far more important than the air temperature due to its influence and response on the underlying conditions of vegetation and landcover changes. In this study, the difference of the air temperature and ground surface temperature, extreme indices of the ground surface temperature in the Three-River Source Regions (TRSR) are reported.

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Why is it important?

The Three-River Source Regions (TRSR) is a key region for ecological barrier of China. Permafrost occupies approximately 61.0% of the total area of the TRSR. Most permafrost in the TRSR is warm, thin, dry and particularly sensitive to climate changes and anthropological activities. While in situ observations of permafrost temperatures are sparse. Therefore, the observation of ground surface temperature from meteorological stations as the substitutions to study the variations of permafrost is particularly important.

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