Soil temperature influences land-atmosphere interaction within the Earth system, which is a primary component of "thermal regime" of the land, or a regular pattern of temperature change within the soil.
Global surface warming has slowed down during the first decade of the 21st century. Whether or not soil temperatures will respond to slower surface warming remains unclear.
"Soil temperatures normally are closely coupled with the upper surface air temperature," said Dr. ZHANG Haoxin from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the lead author of a study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. "There are also many other factors including solar radiation, snow cover, soil memory, etc., that may alter soil temperatures."
During the recent global warming hiatus, the strongest warming slowdown throughout China occurred during winter. Observed surface air temperatures and soil temperatures at multiple depths showed consistent cooling trends at many observation stations in China.
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