Tempo-spatial characteristics of sub-daily temperature trends in mainland China

The spatial and temporal pattern of sub-daily temperature change in mainland China was analysed for the period from 1973 to 2011 using a 3-hourly dataset based on 408 stations. The increase in surface air temperature was more significant by night between 1973 and 1992, with the fastest upward trend around local midnight being about 0.27 °C/decade, while it was more significant by day between 1992 and 2011, with the fastest upward trend being about 0.46 °C/decade in mid-late morning. The season with rapid temperature increase also shifted from winter in 1973–1992 (the largest increase happened near midnight in December, 0.75 °C/decade) to spring in 1992–2011 (the largest increase happened at in the early afternoon in March, 0.82 °C/decade). The change in the spatial distributions of the sub-daily temperature trends shows that Northeast China warmed more significantly in 1973–1992 than elsewhere, but it cooled in 1992–2011, when Southwest China was the new focus of temperature increase whereas it had previously been cooling. A preliminary analysis of the possible causes implies that changes in solar radiation, cloud cover, aerosols and the observational environments near the stations might have contributed to these observed temperature changes.