Spatio-temporal Evolution Characteristics and Interrelationships between Land Surface Temperatures and Air Pollutants in Chinese Cities

Spatio-temporal Evolution Characteristics and Interrelationships between Land Surface Temperatures and Air Pollutants in Chinese Cities | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Spatio-temporal Evolution Characteristics and Interrelationships between Land Surface Temperatures and Air Pollutants in Chinese Cities Yonghe Feng, Guie Li, Qingwu Yan This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8670452/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 6 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Urbanization in China has profoundly altered the urban thermal environment and air quality, imposing significant pressures on urban ecosystems. While the urban heat island (UHI) effect and air pollution are often studied in parallel, their spatio-temporal interrelationships remain complex and not fully quantified across different scales. This study investigates the coupling between land surface temperature (LST) – a key driver of UHI – and major air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, O3) across Chinese cities from 2003 to 2024. We employ a suite of advanced analytical methods, including spatial correlation analysis to characterize the spatial dependence of LST within urban agglomerations, and trajectory modeling to identify key pollution-affected regions and dispersion pathways. Methodologically, the core innovation lies in integrating Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT), Seasonal-Trend decomposition using Loess (STL), and Multifractal Detrended Cross-Correlation Analysis (MF-DCCA). This integrated framework enables a novel multi-scale analysis that captures both the time-frequency dynamics and seasonal characteristics inherent in the LST-pollutant relationship. Our results reveal distinct scale-dependent associations: The relationship between PM2.5 and LST is relatively straightforward at larger scales, whereas the linkage between O3 and LST exhibits the greatest complexity across scales. Conversely, PM10 shows a clearer association with LST at smaller scales. Notably, the strength of cross-correlations for all three pollutants diminishes at larger scales. The multiscale approach advanced in this study successfully quantifies the multi-faceted interplay between LST and pollutants, effectively overcoming the limitations of conventional spatio-temporal analyses. It establishes a new paradigm for elucidating nonlinear relationships in complex environmental systems and provides an efficient methodology for deepening our understanding of the coupling mechanisms between air pollution and the urban thermal environment. Land surface temperature Air pollution Exploratory Spatio-temporal Data Analysis Multifractal Detrended Cross-Correlation Analysis Continuous Wavelet Transform Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 26 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 23 Feb, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 23 Feb, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 22 Jan, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 22 Jan, 2026 First submitted to journal 22 Jan, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8670452","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":595971187,"identity":"3ef774ba-b097-4aa8-854e-ab6bc9a3fc95","order_by":0,"name":"Yonghe Feng","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Mining and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yonghe","middleName":"","lastName":"Feng","suffix":""},{"id":595971190,"identity":"3667bc73-4feb-4a6a-b7c0-6bcf6099b123","order_by":1,"name":"Guie Li","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAtklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFAC5oYDH6BMCSK1MDYcnAGkeEjSwsxDkhZ598bGwzY1h6PtGZgP3uZhsMsjqMXwzMGGwznHDuf2MLAlW/MwJBcT1jIjseFwbgNIC4+ZNA/DgcQGglrmP2w4bAnWwv+NOC3yEowNhxkhtrARp8WAJ7HhYM+x9Nyew2zGlnMMkomwpf3w4Q8/aqxz29ubH954U2FHhC0HYCxmMJeQepAtBA0dBaNgFIyCUQAAB/s8jo1KjDcAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Mining and Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Guie","middleName":"","lastName":"Li","suffix":""},{"id":595971192,"identity":"68131777-7826-4d50-8a0f-5c3f8e4f62d1","order_by":2,"name":"Qingwu Yan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Mining and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Qingwu","middleName":"","lastName":"Yan","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-01-22 13:54:00","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8670452/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8670452/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":103507837,"identity":"077253cd-4201-4520-818f-7cc4c63d2a73","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-26 13:45:54","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1928316,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"origin.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8670452/v1_covered_088ed32f-44ee-4baf-af56-14ea6256365a.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Spatio-temporal Evolution Characteristics and Interrelationships between Land Surface Temperatures and Air Pollutants in Chinese Cities","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"theoretical-and-applied-climatology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"taac","sideBox":"Learn more about [Theoretical and Applied Climatology](https://www.springer.com/journal/704)","snPcode":"704","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/704/3","title":"Theoretical and Applied Climatology","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Land surface temperature, Air pollution, Exploratory Spatio-temporal Data Analysis, Multifractal Detrended Cross-Correlation Analysis, Continuous Wavelet Transform","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8670452/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8670452/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Urbanization in China has profoundly altered the urban thermal environment and air quality, imposing significant pressures on urban ecosystems. 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