Arid Zone Research ›› 2024, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (10): 1649-1661.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2024.10.04

• Weather and Climate • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Impact of land cover variations on surface albedo in Xinjiang and its surrounding Central Asian region

XU Yunhong1(), LIU Qiong1, CHEN Yonghang1(), WEI Xin1, LIU Xin1, ZHANG Taixi2, SHAO Weiling2, YANG Hequn3, ZHANG Chengming1   

  1. 1. School of Donghua University of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai 201620, China
    2. Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Climate Center, Urumqi 830002, Xinjiang, China
    3. Shanghai Ecological Meteorology and Satellite Remote Sensing Center, Shanghai 200030, China
  • Received:2024-05-07 Revised:2024-08-02 Online:2024-10-15 Published:2024-10-14
  • Contact: CHEN Yonghang E-mail:yunhongxu@mail.dhu.edu.cn;yonghangchen@dhu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Based on MODIS MCD12C1 land cover and MCD43C3 surface albedo data, we investigated the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of land cover and surface albedo in Xinjiang and its surrounding Central Asian region from 2002 to 2021. We also discuss the impact of land cover change on surface albedo. Results demonstrated that (1) The net change of land cover was primarily characterized by the decrease of barren land and cropland and the increase of woodland and grassland, and the largest change was in grassland. The change of barren land around the Tarim Basin into grassland was obvious, and the problem of shrub encroachment in the arid area of Central Asia was serious. (2) The conversion of barren land into grassland and grassland into woodland resulted in a decrease of surface albedo by 0.006 and an increase of surface albedo by 0.009, respectively. The conversion of shrub encroachment resulted in an increase of surface albedo by 0.012. The conversion of grassland into barren and exerted the largest impact on surface albedo, with a change of 0.015. The mutual transformation of cropland and grassland exerted the least impact on surface albedo, with a change of <0.001. (3) The change in surface albedo was the most obvious from 2006 to 2011, with the proportion of significant change being 34.87%. (4) The change in surface albedo in the arid area was significantly higher than that in other regions, and the surface albedo in woodland was higher than that in grassland and cropland, due to which the change trend in the three land types was different from that in other regions.

Key words: MODIS data, land cover, surface albedo, spatio-temporal difference, Xinjiang, Central Asian region