Empirical Understanding of Global Warming and the Heat Island Phenomenon by Measurements of Ground Temperature at a Depth of 1 Meter

Abstract

Measurements of ground temperature at a depth of 1 meter have been performed since 2012 in several prefectures at eastern Japan region in order to study changes in the thermal environment of the earth’s surface. We detected that ground temperature measurements at different stations show similar seasonal variation. As a result, we found that recent changes in the ground temperature at a depth of 1 meter are not monotonous (not uniform rise or uniform decline), but fluctuate at intervals of several years. We intend to continue ground temperature measurements at a depth of 1 meter in order to relate the change in the thermal environment of the earth’s surface layer due to global warming or the heat island phenomenon to the changes at a depth of 1 meter.