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We measured air temperature at 14 sites with different land cover composition within the urban canopy layer of a mid-sized Brazilian city. The intensity (ΔT) of the urban heat island (UHI) was calculated using data collected above a lake and at an urban park as references. We investigated the spatio-temporal variability of ΔT during four contiguous days with varying weather. The first day was overcast and rainy, giving rise to a moderate UHI. The second day was sunny, which caused the diurnal ΔT fields to become  heterogeneous, due to larger heating rates at sites with more man-made surfaces compared to natural surfaces. A high-pressure system observed on the last days brought cloudless skies, causing smaller ΔT during the day and greater at night. We hypothesise that the effect was due to the reduction of cooling via evapotranspiration caused by closing of the stomata as the soil dried out, which reduced the daytime temperature differences among the sites. The night-time effect was caused by stronger radiative cooling due to clear skies. The temperature within the park was always lower than over the lake, confirming that urban forestry is a more effective mechanism to combat the UHI. Introducing a park would be about sevenfold cheaper than building a city pond. Hence, green spaces are not only more efficient to combat the UHI but it is also a cheaper strategy compared to blue spaces. Moreover, vegetation delivers other benefits, such as removal of air pollutants, attenuation of urban noise, improvement of city aesthetic and their use as recreational spaces.

We analyzed the sea ice conditions in the Bering Sea for the time period 1979–2012, for which good data based on microwave satellite imagery, being able to look through clouds and darkness, are available. The Bering Sea, west of Alaska, is ice-free in summer, but each winter, an extensive sea ice cover is established, reaching its maximum normally in March. We found a slight increase in ice area over the time period, which is in stark contrast to the significant retreat observed in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and the Arctic Ocean as a whole. Possible explanation might be found in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), which went from dominantly positive values to more negative values in the last decade. The PDO is related to the sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Pacific, negative values indicated cooler temperatures and cooler SST weakening the semipermanent Aleutian Low. When comparing the circulation pattern obtained from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalyzed data set for years of heavy ice against light ice years, an additional vectorial northerly wind component could be deduced from the pressure data. Hence, less relatively warm air is advected into the Bering Sea, which becomes of special importance in winter, when solar radiation is at its minimum. Surface observations confirmed these findings. Atmospheric pressure increased in Cold Bay, located close to the center of the semi-permanent Aleutian Low, the N–S pressure gradient (Nome–Cold Bay) in the Bering Sea decreased, wind speeds of the coastal stations became weakened, and the temperature of coastal stations decreased.

Using 51 meteorological stations in the arid region of northwest China in the mountain, oasis, and the desert areas obtained from 1960 to 2010, this paper conducted a comparative analysis for detecting temperature and precipitation changes in the diverse environments. In recent 50 years, temperature has increased at 0.325, 0.339, and 0.360 °C per decade in the mountain, oasis, and the desert areas, respectively; and also, precipitation has increased at 10.15, 6.29, and 0.87 mm per decade, but in which the increasing trend of precipitation in desert area was not significant. Before the 1990s, the increase in temperature was the fastest in the desert area, up to 0.214 °C per decade, but was the slowest in the mountain area, only 0.103 °C per decade. The temperature rising was faster after the 1990s, 0.606 °C per decade, in the oasis area was fastest, but was the slowest in the desert region with 0.402 °C per decade. The precipitation in each area was stable from 1960 to 1986, but an increase in the oasis and mountain area was larger from 1987 to 2010.

Mit Hilfe einer für andere Zwecke abgeleiteten Formel für die zeitliche Erwärmung der Oberfläche eines strahlungsdurchlässigen Mediums (Reuter [2]) wird der Versuch unternommen, unter gewissen Voraussetzungen die Zeitspanne einer Hyperthermie der ursprünglich 33gradigen menschlichen Haut auf 41° zu berechnen. Für die Berechnung ist die Kenntnis verschiedener Eigenschaften der Haut in bezug auf Strahlung und Wärmeleitung erforderlich. Die dazu nötigen Unterlagen wurden im wesentlichen nachBüttner [1] in Form der entsprechenden Konstanten verwendet. Eine Hyperthermie auf 41° wurde deswegen gewählt, weil nachde Rudder [4] dabei in der Hälfte der beobachteten Fälle bereits letaler Hitzschlag auftritt. Als Außenbedingungen wurden angenommen, daß die Lufttemperatur 30° betrage und während des ganzen Einstrahlungsprozesses sich nicht wesentlich ändere, ferner, daß Windstille herrsche. Die Einstrahlungs-intensität wurde konstant vorausgesetzt und ebenso der Wärmeverlust der Hautoberfläche durch Abstrahlung und Verdunstung. Den Berechnungen wurde schließlich noch die Annahme zugrunde gelegt, daß es sich um völlig schwitzende Haut handelt, also der größtmögliche Wärmeverlust durch Verdunstung auftritt. Das Ergebnis ist für verschiedene Einstrahlungs-intensitäten und verschiedene Werte der Luftfeuchte aus Tabelle 3 ersichtlich. Es ergibt sich daraus, daß bis zu einer Einstrahlungsintensität von 1,0 cal pro cm2 und Minute die Gefahr einer raschen Hyperthermie nicht besteht. Dagegen ist bei einem Ansteigen der Einstrahlungsintensität auf 1,5 cal pro cm2 und Minute, was im Einzelfall in unseren Breiten erreicht wird, in niedrigen Breiten jedoch häufig realisiert sein dürfte, die Zeitspanne bis zu einer Hyperthermie auf 41° verhältnismäßig gering und liegt je nach der Luftfeuchte zwischen einer viertel und einer halben Stunde.

Run off due to snow melt from Beas river catchment in the Himalayan region, during three months viz. April, May and June 1969, is computed by energy balance techniques and is compared with the observed snow melt discharge from the river. The critical meteorological parameters which control snow melting in such regions are established. It is noted that for given atmospheric conditions, critical values of air temperature and relative humidity exist above which melting increases with increasing wind and below which melting decreases as wind increases. Implications of this finding on control of snow melt by artificial means are discussed.

Limitations of mapping land surface properties and their conversion into climate model boundary conditions are major sources of uncertainty in climate simulations. In this paper, the range of the largest possible uncertainty in satellite-derived land cover (LC) map is estimated and its impact on climate simulations is quantified with the Earth System Model of the Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology utilizing prescribed sea surface temperature and sea ice. Two types of uncertainty in the LC map are addressed: (i) uncertainty due to classification algorithm of spectral reflectance into LC classes, and (ii) uncertainty due to conversion of LC classes into the climate model vegetation distribution. For forest cover, each of them is about the same order of magnitude as the uncertainty range in recent observations (∼± 700 Mha). Superposing two sources of uncertainty results in LC maps that feature the range of vegetation deviation that is about the same order of magnitude as the recent (since year 1700) forest loss due to agriculture (forest cover uncertainty range ∼± 1700 Mha). These uncertainties in vegetation distribution lead to noticeable variations in near-surface climate variables, local, regional, and global climate forcing. Temperature does not show significant uncertainty in global mean, but rather exhibits regional deviations with an opposite response to LC uncertainty that compensate each other in the global mean (e.g., albedo feedback controls temperature in boreal North America resulting in cooling (warming) with decrease (increase) of vegetation while evaporative cooling controls temperature in South America and sub-Saharan Africa resulting in cooling (warming) with increase (decrease) of vegetation). Large-scale circulation is also affected by the LC uncertainty, and consequently precipitation pattern as well. It is demonstrated that precipitation uncertainty in the monsoonal regions are about the same order of magnitude as in previous studies with idealized perturbations of vegetation. These findings indicate that the range of uncertainty in satellite-derived vegetation maps for climate models is about the same order of magnitude as the uncertainty in recent observations of forest cover or as the forest lost due to agriculture. Consequently, climate simulations have a similar range of uncertainty in variables representing near-surface climate as the observed climate change due to land use. Hence, more accurate methods are needed for mapping and converting LC properties into model vegetation in order to increase reliability of climate model simulations.

Land use practices have replaced much of the natural ecosystems of Michigan with cropland and urban settlements. These modifications can alter regional climates because changes in vegetation can alter albedo, surface roughness, surface energy balances, and evapotranspiration. Climate may also be affected by soil, elevation, latitude, and proximity to large water bodies. We collected temperature and relative humidity data in southwest Michigan each week during May, July, and September, 2017 from the Weather Underground Sensor Network, a crowd-sourced repository for climate data. We used multiple regression to model the effects of land use/land cover on the temperature and relative humidity of the region. Results revealed that (1) soil texture and land use/land cover explained temperatures during July, (2) soil moisture explained May and July relative humidity, and (3) proximity to Lake Michigan explained September temperatures. Despite inherent error associated with crowd-sourced data, our models revealed that changes in land use/land cover have the potential to alter regional climate through modification of vegetation and disturbances of soils. Model validation indicated that predicted temperature was more accurate than relative humidity; however, both were predicted relatively well. Because continued changes in land use/land cover are expected, it is important to understand how changes to vegetation could influence regional temperature and relative humidity.