Temporal and spatial variations of the air temperature in the Taklamakan Desert and surrounding areas

In recent years, climate change has attracted many researchers' attention around the world, among which the analysis of long-term surface air temperature (SAT) changes is essential. In this paper, we analyze the spatial and temporal variations of the SAT in Tarim Basin from 1961 to 2015. Our results show that warming of the SAT is evident at most weather stations in the Taklamakan Desert, except for those at Aketao, Kuche, and Tazhong. The overall warming rate is 0.25 degrees C/decade in the Taklamakan Desert. Mann-Kendall tests are adopted to detect abrupt changes in the SATs. It is demonstrated that nine out of 39 stations experienced a simultaneous abrupt change in 1996, which is consistent with the abrupt changes seen in the local vegetation cover. The relationships between the SAT changes and the underlying landscape and vegetation cover are also discussed in this paper. A moderate negative correlation is discovered between the SAT and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) at oases.