Global surface air temperature variations: 1851-1984

• Main Authors: Jones, P.D., Raper, S.C.B., Kelly, P.M.
• Other Authors: United States. Department of Energy. Office of Energy Research.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Oak Ridge National Laboratory 1986
• Subjects: Climates; Meteorology; 58 Geosciences; Surface Air; Data Compilation; 54 Environmental Sciences; Global Aspects; Temperature Monitoring; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.2172/538034; http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc696672/

Many attempts have been made to combine station surface air temperature data into an average for the Northern Hemisphere. Fewer attempts have been made for the Southern Hemisphere because of the unavailability of data from the Antarctic mainland before the 1950s and the uncertainty of making a hemispheric estimate based solely on land-based analyses for a hemisphere that is 80% ocean. Past estimates have been based largely on data from the World Weather Records (Smithsonian Institution, 1927, 1935, 1947, and U.S. Weather Bureau, 1959-82) and have been made without considerable effort to detect and correct station inhomogeneities. Better estimates for the Southern Hemisphere are now possible because of the availability of 30 years of climatological data from Antarctica. The mean monthly surface air temperature anomalies presented in this package for the than those previously published because of the incorporation of data previously hidden away in archives and the analysis of station homogeneity before estimation.