This paper analyzes the spatial dependence of annual diurnal temperature range (DTR) trends from 1950–2004 on the annual climatology
of three variables: precipitation, cloud cover, and leaf area index (LAI), by classifying the global land into various climatic
regions based on the climatological annual precipitation. The regional average trends for annual minimum temperature (
T
min) and DTR exhibit significant spatial correlations with the climatological values of these three variables, while such correlation
for annual maximum temperature (
T
max) is very weak. In general, the magnitude of the downward trend of DTR and the warming trend of
T
min decreases with increasing precipitation amount, cloud cover, and LAI, i.e., with stronger DTR decreasing trends over drier
regions. Such spatial dependence of
T
min and DTR trends on the climatological precipitation possibly reflects large-scale effects of increased global greenhouse gases
and aerosols (and associated changes in cloudiness, soil moisture, and water vapor) during the later half of the twentieth
century.
Keywords Climate change and variability - DTR - Cloud cover - Precipitation - Land cover
An erratum to this article can be found at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00382-008-0393-7