Comparison of air temperature changes in different ground surfaces in arid regions

Abstract

Different surface covers such as soil, rock, plant and etc, lead to be created different climate conditions in small scales by impacting on the adjacent atmospheric elements. The greatest difference tangibly in land surfaces and air temperatures were observed in arid and desert regions on hot days, which can have significant microclimate and ecological effects on environment. In this study, 8 different land surface cover including, green plant cover, dead plant cover, arable soil, cement surface, non-arable soil, pavement, asphalt and dark metal surface were measured using two types of mercury and digital thermometers to compare between the measured temperature at the Yazd meteorological station and the temperature of different land surfaces, in June and July, 2016. Then, the land surface temperatures were compared to each other and also compared with the air temperature measured at the Yazd meteorological station. Based on the results, the highest measured temperature reaches to above 70 0C in asphalt cover and the lowest surface temperature of 47.4 0C were recorded in plant surface. According to the result of Kolmogorov Smirnov test, there are a significant difference between the different land surfaces and the air temperatures (R2= 0.86) at 5% level during the measured period. Generally, asphalt and plant surfaces showed the highest (230C) and the lowest (50C) thermal differences with air temperature. Concluding, different land surfaces show different thermal patterns.

Keywords

• thermal pattern
• land surface
• temperature
• desert
• yazd