Climate Network Analysis Detects Hot Spots under Anthropogenic Climate Change

Haiming Kuai, Ping Yu, Wenqi Liu, Yongwen Zhang, Jingfang Fan

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1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change poses a significant threat to both natural and social systems worldwide. In this study, we aim to identify regions most impacted by climate change using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP-NCAR) reanalysis of near-surface daily air temperature data spanning 73 years (1948–2020). We develop a novel climate network framework to identify “hot spots”, regions that exhibit significant impact or impacted characteristics. Specifically, we use the node degree, a fundamental feature of the network, to measure the influence of each region and analyze its trend over time using the Mann–Kendall test. Our findings reveal that the majority of land areas experiencing increasing degrees are more closely connected to other regions, while the ocean shows the opposite trend due to weakened oceanic circulations. In particular, the degree in the central Pacific Ocean’s El Niño region is significantly reduced. Notably, we identify three “hot spots” in East Asia, South America, and North Africa, respectively, with intensive increasing network degree fields. Additionally, we find that the hot spot in East Asia is teleconnected to remote regions, such as the South Pacific, Siberia, and North America, with stronger teleconnections in recent years. This provides a new perspective for assessing the planetary impacts of anthropogenic global warming. By using a novel climate network framework, our study highlights regions that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change and emphasizes the importance of understanding network structures to assess the global impacts of anthropogenic climate change.

Original languageEnglish
Article number692
JournalAtmosphere
Volume14
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2023
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

Funding

This research was funded by the Fundamental Research Program of Yunnan Province (No. CB22052C173A), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61573173), and the Yunnan Academician Workstation of Wang Jingxiu (202005AF150025). J.F acknowledges the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 12205025, 12275020, 12135003).

FundersFunder number
Fundamental Research Program of Yunnan ProvinceCB22052C173A
Yunnan Academician Workstation of Wang Jingxiu12135003, 202005AF150025, 12275020, 12205025
National Natural Science Foundation of China61573173

    Keywords

    • Mann–Kendall test
    • climate change
    • climate network
    • complexity science
    • teleconnections

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