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Photo of Hakim Abdi

Hakim Abdi

Researcher

Photo of Hakim Abdi

Four Decades of Air Temperature Data over Iran Reveal Linear and Nonlinear Warming

Author

  • Majid Kazemzadeh
  • Zahra Noori
  • Sadegh Jamali
  • Abdulhakim M. Abdi

Summary, in English

Spatiotemporal analysis of long-term changes in air temperature is of prime importance for climate change research and the development of effective mitigation and adaptation strategies. Although there is considerable research on air temperature change across the globe, most of it has been on linear trends and time series analysis of nonlinear trends has not received enough attention. Here, we analyze spatiotemporal patterns of monthly and annual mean (Tmean), maximum (Tmax) and minimum (Tmin) air temperature at 47 synoptic stations across climate zones in Iran for a 40-year time period (1978–2017). We applied a polynomial fitting scheme (Polytrend) to both monthly and annual air temperature data to detect trends and classify them into linear and nonlinear (quadratic and cubic) categories. The highest magnitude of increasing trends were observed in the annual Tmin (0.47 °C per decade) and the lowest magnitude was for the annual Tmax (0.4°C per decade). Across the country, increasing trends (x̄ = 37.2%) had higher spatial coverage than the decreasing trends (x̄ = 3.2%). Warming trends in Tmean (65.3%) and Tmin (73.1%) were mainly observed in humid climate zone while warming trends in Tmax were in semi-arid (43.9%) and arid (34.1%) climates. Linear change with a positive trend was predominant in all Tmean (56.7%), Tmax (67.8%) and Tmin (71.2%) and for both monthly and annual datasets. Further, the linear trends had the highest warming rate in annual Tmin (0.83°C per decade) and Tmean (0.46°C per decade) whereas the nonlinear trends had the highest warming rate in annual Tmax (0.52°C per decade). The linear trend type was predominant in humid climate zones whereas the nonlinear trends (quadratic and cubic) were mainly observed in the arid climate zones.

Department/s

  • Transport and Roads
  • MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World
  • Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)

Publishing year

2022-01-20

Language

English

Pages

462-477

Publication/Series

Journal of Meteorological Research

Volume

36

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Chinese Meteorological Society

Topic

  • Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
  • Climate Research

Keywords

  • Spatial statistics
  • Global warming
  • Climate research
  • Iran
  • Middle East

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2095-6037