Satellite observations reveal latitudinal variability and asymmetry in local temperature responses to land cover changes

Land cover changes (LCCs) affect surface temperatures at local scale through biophysical processes. However, limited by the coarse spatial resolution of available data, past observation-based studies mainly focused on the potential effects of virtual afforestation/deforestation using the space-for-time assumption. Prof. Li and his team first generated a high-resolution temperature dataset and then explored the actual effects of all types of realistic LCCs by adopting the space-and-time scheme and utilizing extensive satellite observations.