The impacts of land cover/land use change on satellite-derived diurnal temperature range

Diurnal temperature range (DTR) is an important climate change variable. Till recently, most information on this parameter came from surface air temperature observations. Such observations are sparse and unevenly distributed. Use of satellites for such evaluation is therefore attractive. In this study GOES-8 based estimates of land surface temperature (LST) were used to evaluate this parameter. The ability to detect the impact of land cover/land use (LCLU) on the variability in DTR was investigated. A strong dependence on land cover types was found. Moreover, it was observed that when land cover is converted from forests to cropland (deforestation), the DTR increases, while a decrease in DTR is found for agricultural development, like transition from grassland to cropland, and urbanization, such as transition from forests, cropland, grassland to urban.