Daily spatial temperature range: Spatiotemporal pattern and climate change response

• Daily spatial temperature range (DSTR) is scale dependent. • Spatiotemporal pattern of DSTR at various scales were mapped. • DSTR decreased globally and regionally under climate change. • The influence of latent heat flux and solar shortwave radiation is larger globally/hemispherically. Due to its impact on cereal yields, vegetation growth, animal wellbeing, and human health, considerable attention has been paid to diurnal temperature range, focusing on the temporal dimension of surface air temperature. However, the characteristics of spatial temperature range and its response to climate change remain unclear, despite its importance to various natural and societal activities. Here, we proposed a daily spatial temperature range (DSTR, difference between spatial maximum and minimum temperature, STmax and STmin) indicator to measure the maximum spatial temperature range within a given region over a day. We analyzed the spatiotemporal pattern of DSTR and its trend under climate change at four scales (global, hemispheric, national, and provincial), with the following main results: (1) DSTR was scale dependent, provincial pattern of which were mainly related to sensible and latent heat fluxes. (2) The key regions affecting DSTR and temporal distribution at different scales were mapped out. (3) Under climate change, DSTR significantly decreased globally, hemispherically, and in series Chinese provinces due to the greater warming of STmin than STmax. The influence of latent heat flux and solar shortwave radiation was larger at global/hemispheric scales, while the albedo was a more critical driver at provincial scale. For the first time, we proposed the DSTR indicator and emphasized the importance of exploring spatial temperature heterogeneity. This spatial information is important to optimize relevant societal activities, and the response of DSTR to climate change has further led to the consideration of the relationship between DSTR and extreme events, biodiversity, etc.