Multifractal scaling properties of global land surface air temperature

This study investigates the multifractal scaling behavior of global land surface air temperature. Multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis is employed to examine the long-range correlation and multiscaling behavior of the CRUTEM4 near-surface air temperature anomaly over land from 1901 to 2013. The scaling exponents of the temperature series averaged over the global earth, Northern Hemisphere, and Southern Hemisphere are 0.85, 0.80, and 0.94, respectively. The results suggest that the global temperature anomaly is long-range correlated or long-term persistent and that the temperature of the Northern Hemisphere is higher than that of the Southern Hemisphere. Compared with the inner continental land, the island and coastal areas show stronger long-range correlation or long-term persistence. The dependence of h(q) on q indicates that the global land near-surface temperature is multifractal. In addition, the degree of multifractality is heterogeneously distributed in global lands.