title: Understanding the complexity of temperature dynamics in Xinjiang, China, from multitemporal scale and spatial perspectives.
abstract: Based on the observed data from 51 meteorological stations during the period from 1958 to 2012 in Xinjiang, China, we investigated the complexity of temperature dynamics from the temporal and spatial perspectives by using a comprehensive approach including the correlation dimension (CD), classical statistics, and geostatistics. The main conclusions are as follows (1) The integer CD values indicate that the temperature dynamics are a complex and chaotic system, which is sensitive to the initial conditions. (2) The complexity of temperature dynamics decreases along with the increase of temporal scale. To describe the temperature dynamics, at least 3 independent variables are needed at daily scale, whereas at least 2 independent variables are needed at monthly, seasonal, and annual scales. (3) The spatial patterns of CD values at different temporal scales indicate that the complex temperature dynamics are derived from the complex landform.
authors.affiliation: The Research Center for East-West Cooperation in China, The Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science, Ministry of Education of PRC, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China. jhxu@geo.ecnu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Yaning
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Weihong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zuhan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Chunmeng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D002980:Climate; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D015233:Models, Statistical; D013696:Temperature