Diurnal Relationship Between the Surface Albedo and Surface Temperature in Revegetated Desert Ecosystems, Northwestern China

Quantification of the relationship between surface albedo and surface temperature was done by analyzing measured diurnal variations of surface albedo and surface temperature on the biological soil crusts and sand dunes within vegetation-stabilized desert ecosystems. The surface albedos and surface temperatures of sand dunes and biological soil crusts were measured concurrently over field plots of the moving sand area and the artificially revegetated area established in 1964 in Shapotou area, on the southeastern edge of the Tengger Desert. Results indicated that the diurnal variation of surface albedo for both dry surfaces showed an upward-facing parabolic curve on clear days and was symmetrical at about local noon. Whereas, the diurnal trend of surface temperature was opposite to that of surface albedo in the daytime and asymmetrical at about local noon times. Thereby, the data were empirically divided into forenoon and afternoon data with respect to local noon to analyze the relationship between surface albedo and surface temperature. A highly correlated negative linear relationship was found in the two time periods, respectively, and we proposed an empirical model between surface albedo and surface temperature based on that relationship. The model results indicate a good potential application for using the surface temperature to specify surface albedo.