How Well Is Surface Diurnal Temperature Range Represented by Observations at 2‐m Level

ABSTRACT Diurnal temperature range (DTR) of the Earth's surface controls the intensity of the energy exchange at the Earth/Atmosphere interface, affects human health, agriculture, ecosystems, and carries a signature of soil moisture. Traditionally, DTR is estimated from observations at 2‐m ( T a ) or from model outputs at that level. We derive information on DTR over the United States from land surface temperature ( T s ) based on geostationary (GEO) satellites at 5 km spatial resolution and at hourly time scale. The results are evaluated against ground observations and compared to ERA5 model outputs at the 2‐m level. It was demonstrated that geostationary satellites depict well the DTR in the US and that using information at the 2 m level from model outputs does not depict correctly the DTR of the surface where the exchange of energy takes place.