Detection and visualisation of climate trends in China

Research on climate trends in China has been carried out within a co-operation of the Justus Liebig Universities Department of Geography and Zentrum für internationale Entwicklungs- und Umweltforschung (ZEU) and the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology (CAS). First results were introduced by BECKER et al. 2003 a, b who worked on precipitation trend analyses in the Yangtze River Catchment. In the meanwhile, the National Climatic Centre of China (NCCC) kindly provided climatic data in China within the framework of this co-operation. Financial support from the CAS Key project KZCX3-SW-331 and the NSFC project 40271112 enabled the data acquisition. The analysis of both, precipitation and temperature data for the whole of China from 1951- 2002 can be carried out now. A shorter version of the precipitation trend observation will soon be published in Theoretical and Applied Climatology (GEMMER et al. 2003, accepted for publication/in print). Results of the temperature trend research have not been published yet. They will be submitted to an international Journal when further statistical approaches with regard to daily temperature data are processed. The discussion paper in hand will make the actual results accessible for further research groups in Germany.