Studies on the patterns of temperature changes with elevation have important implications for constructing the microscale temperature of mountain areas and for practical applications in agriculture

forestry

prevention and control of natural disasters

and ecosystem management. Long-term observation data and instrument data logging based on the ground meteorological network are the most conventional methods for obtaining temperature change patterns along the elevation gradient. However

limited by the number of meteorological stations and insufficient coverage over large geographical regions

the observed and recorded results are easily distorted by accidental factors. This implies that the results may be inadequate for constructing spatial distribution models of land surface temperatures in synchronized time phases for contiguous microscale mountain environments over large r egions. Choosing Yunnan Province as the study area

this paper endeavored to detail mountainous temperatures with elevation changes across different spatial scales using the Instantaneous Land Surface Temperature（ ILST） and Digital Elevation Model（ DEM）. First

a raster of ILST was retrieved from thermal infrared bands of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer（ MODIS） using the split-window algorithm. Second

the mean temperature data for November from three decades recorded at c onventional meteorological stations were used to calibrate the remotely sensed ILST to attain a raster of the temperature. Third

the effects of latitude changes

changes in slope drop

slope aspect

water body and latitudinal variations were eliminated or r educed. Then

the Temperature Lapse Rates（ TLRs） with elevation for the entire Yunnan province and for different types of mountain landforms and slope aspects were calculated using random sampling

spatial division and statistical regression. The results i nclude:（ 1） after reducing or eliminating the effects of aspect

slope

longitude

latitude and other microterrain factors

TLR of e levation was 0. 53℃ at the entire regional scale.（ 2） TLR increased gradually from the high to low mountain area at the local r egional scale of typical landforms. TLR was0. 47℃ in the alpine region of northwest Yunnan

0. 51℃ in the middle mountainous region of central and eastern Yunnan

0. 54℃in the low mountainous region alone the southern border of Yunnan

and 0. 54℃ in the alpine canyon region of northwest Yunnan and river valley region of southern Yunnan.（ 3） TLR increased from sunny to shady slope: 0. 52℃ on sunny slope

0. 54℃ on semi-shady slope

and 0. 55℃ on shady slope. The zonal patterns in mountain temperature changes

acquired by retrieving the instantaneous land surface temperature based on the thermal infrared bands in MODIS images

complement the constraints of unavailable synchronized data in conventional methods. Through statistical computation of TLRs

the zonal patterns of temperature changes at different spatial scales can be acquired in detail. Elevation is the main factor affecting mountain temperature

and it demonstrates outstanding geographical patterns in relation to temperature. In addition to elevation

other microterrain factors

such as aspect and slope are also affecting mountainous temperatures in micropatterns

and this needs to be further researched. It is a relatively new method to research into the laws of temperature change in the mountain regions with DEM and ILST using remotely sensed data.