Spatial patterns of apparent temperature and air temperature trends from 1950-2023, and their differences (IMAGE)

Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research (OLAR)

Spatial patterns of apparent temperature and air temperature trends from 1950-2023, and their differences

Caption

A and B show long-term trends of apparent temperature (APT); C and D show long-term trends of air temperature (AT); and E and F show the difference between APT and AT trends (ΔT = APT trend − AT trend). Panels A, C, E show global spatial distributions. Panels B, D, F show zonal-mean averages over ocean (blue) and land (red). Over land, APT rises faster than AT over more than 96% of the area. Over the ocean, however, APT warms significantly slower than AT, with more than 30% of the ocean showing no significant warming or even cooling—a pattern particularly pronounced in the Southern Hemisphere.

Credit

Longshi Liao, Simon F. B. Tett, Hairong Li, Zichen Li, Boyang Jiao, and Qingxiang Li

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News organizations may use or redistribute this image, with proper attribution, as part of news coverage of this paper only. (Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research, Vol. 5, 2026, DOI: 10.34133/olar.0151).

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