Latitudinal and Seasonal Asymmetry in Land Surface Temperature Responses to Vegetation Greening Across China

Abstract Vegetation greening, primarily driven by climate change and land management, has been widely reported globally, with China experiencing one of the most pronounced instances of greening in recent decades. Current studies have mainly focused on the temperature effects of changes in land cover types; however, the impacts of vegetation self‐greening, characterized by natural physiological processes such as aging and canopy structure development, on land surface temperature (LST) remain unclear. Here, we employed a space‐for‐time approach to quantify the biophysical effects of vegetation greening on LST (i.e., ΔLST) across China from 2000 to 2018 using multi‐year satellite observations. We found that vegetation greening caused significant daytime cooling (−0.36 K), surpassing that of nighttime (−0.07 K) over the study period. Spatially, pronounced cooling dominated lower latitudes, contrasting with slight warming in mid‐to‐high latitudes, with this warming phenomenon being more evident at nighttime. The latitudinal transition of LST from cooling to warming occurred at around 47°N for daytime, nighttime, and daily mean values. This latitudinal pattern was season‐dependent, shifting to its northernmost extent in summer and southward to around 40°N in winter. Data‐driven methods revealed that albedo decreased by −0.0035 ± 0.009 in total, contributing to warming in Northeastern China, while evapotranspiration (ET) increased by 37.3 ± 33.9 mm across China, driving cooling in other regions. Our findings highlight the importance of vegetation greening in shaping local climate and advance understanding of vegetation feedback on climate, providing valuable insights for developing targeted land management strategies.