Global trends in lake temperatures observed from space

This study uses the existing archive of spaceborne thermal infrared imagery to generate multi-decadal time series of lake surface temperature for 169 of the largest inland water bodies worldwide, and to estimate trends for the water bodies. The results indicate that the nighttime summertime/dry-season surface temperatures of the studied water bodies have been increasing with an average rate of 0.045 ± 0.011 °C yr^-1 for the period 1985 to 2009. Individual lakes have shown warming rates as high as 0.13 ± 0.01 °C yr^-1. On the global scale, the data show the greatest warming in the mid- and high latitudes of the Northern hemisphere, and particularly in Northern Europe with spatially consistent rates of approximately 0.08 ± 0.01 °C yr^-1. The results of this study provide a critical new independent data source on studying the effects of climate change.