Early ship-based upper-air data and comparison with the Twentieth Century Reanalysis ...

• Main Authors: Brönnimann, Stefan, Compo, Gilbert P., Spadin, R., Allan, Rob, Adam, Wolfgang
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2011
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000034285; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/34285

Extension of 3-D atmospheric data products back into the past is desirable for a wide range of applications. Historical upper-air data are important in this endeavour, particularly in the maritime regions of the tropics and the southern hemisphere, where observations are extremely sparse. Here we present newly digitized and re-evaluated early ship-based upper-air data from two cruises: (1) kite and registering balloon profiles from onboard the ship SMS Planet on a cruise from Europe around South Africa and across the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific in 1906/1907, and (2) ship-based radiosonde data from onboard the MS Schwabenland on a cruise from Europe across the Atlantic to Antarctica and back in 1938/1939. We describe the data and provide estimations of the errors. We compare the data with a recent reanalysis (the Twentieth Century Reanalysis Project, 20CR, Compo et al., 2011) that provides global 3-D data back to the 19th century based on an assimilation of surface pressure data only (plus monthly ... : Climate of the Past, 7 (1) ...