The role that the Aral Sea desiccation in triggering the diurnal thermal range dynamics in the region has been studied within the CLIMSEAS project by Elena Roget in collaboration with Valentina Khan from the Hydrometeorological Research Center of the Russian Federation. As result of this research, Dr. Roget and Dr. Khan have recently published the paper entitled “Decadal differences of the diurnal temperature range in the Aral Sea region at the turn of the century” in the Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography international journal, within the framework of the “Hydrodynamics and Physical Processes in Natural Aquatic Systems” line of the Environmental Physics research group of the University of Girona.

The authors show that the daily temperature in the region ranges between about 3 °C and 18 °C (maxima values being observed in spring and summer), and that from 1991 to 2010 has varied up to 0.6 º C per decade at the meteorological stations closest to the pre-desiccation shoreline. In the south of the Aral, where the artificial Sarygamysh Lake expanded during the studied period, the decadal difference of the annual mean on the diurnal temperature range has diminished.

The CLIMSEAS exchange project was funded by the European Commission under the grant FP7-IRSES-2009- 247512. This research has been finished thanks to the support of the University of Girona through the program PCUdG2016.