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Anthropogenic influence on temperature change in China over the period 1901-2018


Human influence on regional warming since 1901 has received little attention because of limited data during the early period. This study investigates the relative contribution of different external forcings to observed annual, summer and winter warming in China over the period 1901-2018. First, four observational datasets were compared to validate data representativeness, particularly during the early 20th century. Observed temperature changes were then compared with outputs from the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) and Phase 6 (CMIP6) based on an optimal fingerprinting method. Generally, both generations of climate models were able to reliably reproduce long-term warming in China over the period 1901-2018; however, they slightly underestimate the amplitude of annual and winter temperature increases. The observed annual warming of 1.54 °C from 1901 to 2018 was more rapid than the global mean and was mostly attributable to the anthropogenic forcing signal. The three-signal detection analyses, including greenhouse gas (GHG), anthropogenic aerosol (AA), and natural external (NAT) forcings, indicated the detectable and distinct influence of GHG and AA signals on annual, summer and winter temperatures during 1901-2018. For annual mean temperature, the GHG and AA contributed to 2.06 °C [1.58 °C to 2.54 °C] and −0.45 °C [−0.17 °C to −0.73 °C] of observed change, respectively. The GHG signal was detectable from individual CMIP6 models and thus was indicative of the robustness of this influence. While during 1951–2018, GHG and AA were simultaneously detected in the summer temperatures based on the CMIP6 models; here, the AA cooling effects offset approximately 25% of GHG-induced warming.