Spatial and temporal changes in aridity index in northwest China: 1960 to 2010

Northwest China is the driest region in China and the regional climate fluctuated dramatically during the last century. Aridity index, as the ratio between potential evapotranspiration and precipitation, is a good indicator to represent regional climate character. In this study, the change and attribution of the aridity index was investigated in northwest China using the observed climate data from 80 national meteorological stations during 1960–2010. The spatial and temporal variabilities of the aridity index shows that the annual aridity index decreased significantly (P?<?0.05) by 0.048 year^?1, indicating that northwest China became wetter from 1960 to 2010. A differentiation equation method was used to attribute the change in aridity index to climate variables. The results indicate that the aridity index was most sensitive to the change in precipitation, followed by vapor pressure, solar radiation, wind speed, and air temperature. Increase in air temperature should have led to an increase in aridity index, but this effect had been offset by the increase in precipitation and vapor pressure and the decrease in wind speed. Increasing precipitation, which contributed 91.7 % of the decrease in the aridity index, was the dominant factor to the decrease in the aridity index in northwest China from 1960 to 2010.