Creating Climate Reference Datasets: CARDS Workshop on Adjusting Radiosonde Temperature Data for Climate Monitoring

Free, Melissa; Durre, Imke; Aguilar, Enric; Seidel, Dian J.; Peterson, Thomas C.; Eskridge, Robert E.; Luers, J. K.; Parker, D. E.; Gordon, Margaret; Lanzante, John R.; Klein, Stephen A.; Christy, John R.; Schroeder, Steven R.; Soden, Brian J.; McMillin, Larry M.

doi:10.1175/1520-0477(2002)083<0891:ccrdcw>2.3.co;2

Cited by 42 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The latter can be caused by problems in equipment calibration, sensor performance, data transmission, or data processing. As a consequence, in addition to techniques for homogenizing the radiosonde record (Free et al 2002(Free et al , 2005Thorne et al 2005;Haimberger 2007), procedures that can detect basic data-quality problems in historical and real-time radiosonde data are also of critical importance from the perspective of climate-change detection. Such fundamental quality-assurance (QA) procedures have been implemented in IGRA, with particular attention to the climatically important variable of temperature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust Automated Quality Assurance of Radiosonde Temperatures

Durre

Vose

Wuertz

2008

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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This paper presents a description of the fully automated quality-assurance (QA) procedures that are being applied to temperatures in the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA). Because these data are routinely used for monitoring variations in tropospheric temperature, it is of critical importance that the system be able to detect as many errors as possible without falsely identifying true meteorological events as erroneous. Three steps were taken to achieve such robust performance. First, 14 tests for excessive persistence, climatological outliers, and vertical and temporal inconsistencies were developed and arranged into a deliberate sequence so as to render the system capable of detecting a variety of data errors. Second, manual review of random samples of flagged values was used to set the "thresholds" for each individual check so as to minimize the number of valid values that are mistakenly identified as errors. The performance of the system as a whole was also assessed through manual inspection of random samples of the qualityassured data. As a result of these efforts, the IGRA temperature QA procedures effectively remove the grossest errors while maintaining a false-positive rate of approximately 10%.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust Automated Quality Assurance of Radiosonde Temperatures

Durre

Vose

Wuertz

2008

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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“…Several authors have documented nonclimatic inhomogeneities (i.e., time-varying systematic biases) in the radiosonde temperature archive Eskridge et al 1995;Lanzante et al 2003a;Free et al 2002;Sherwood et al 2005;Free et al 2005;Randel and Wu 2006). Examples include changes in radiosonde type related to changes in temperature sensor or its exposure, changes in observation time, and station relocations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Utility of Radiosonde Wind Data in Representing Climatological Variations of Tropospheric Temperature and Baroclinicity in the Western Tropical Pacific

Allen

Sherwood

2007

Journal of Climate

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The utility of the thermal wind equation (TWE) in relating tropospheric (850-300 hPa) wind and temperature on climatological time scales is assessed, based on data from 59 radiosonde stations in the western tropical Pacific during 1979Pacific during -2004. Observed long-term mean and seasonal variations closely obey geostrophic balance; incorporating additional (ageostrophic) terms yields negligible improvement. The authors conclude that observed winds offer a useful constraint on the horizontal structure of monthly and longer temperature variations (although the reverse is not true close to the equator where f → 0). This conclusion is also supported by general circulation model output.Wind data show a slowing of the midlatitude jets in the Maritime Continent region since 1979, indicating that tropical thicknesses and temperature have increased less than those poleward of 25°N/S. This pattern is consistent with Microwave Sounding Unit temperature trends in the region but is exaggerated south of the equator in trends obtained directly from the temperature data. The latter are however sensitive to which stations are used and how the data are averaged, and the discrepancy is fairly small in a homogenized climatology from the Hadley Centre (HadAT). The discrepancy is most easily explained by spurious cooling at stations in the near-equatorial western Pacific.These results support the use of the wind field as a way of overcoming heterogeneities in the temperature records in the monitoring of climate change patterns.

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“…The CGMS promotes coordinated operation and use of data and products from its members' satellite systems, in support of operational weather monitoring and forecasting, and related aspects of climate monitoring and coordinates with GCOS. However, disruptions in observing systems and the use of systems not designed for climate observations have significantly increased uncertainties in climate records, hindered progress in or increased uncertainty in key climate science such as inadequate aerosol radiative forcing and cloud feedback observations to constrain climate feedbacks and sensitivity and uncertainties in upper air trends based on weather observations (e.g., Free et al, 2002). Understanding future climate is increasingly valuable to the economies of the world and the health of the Earth (IPCC, 2013;USGCRP, 2014).…”

Section: Current Approaches To Climate Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Discontinuities of observations add tremendous uncertainty to both the observations reported and the derived trends because of the difficulty in addressing disruptions (Free et al, 2002;. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine convened a panel to address continuity of Earth observations from space.…”

Section: Baseline Information Continuous Records and Independent Vermentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing the Climate Observing System of the Future

et al. 2018

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Climate observations are needed to address a large range of important societal issues including sea level rise, droughts, floods, extreme heat events, food security, and freshwater availability in the coming decades. Past, targeted investments in specific climate questions have resulted in tremendous improvements in issues important to human health, security, and infrastructure. However, the current climate observing system was not planned in a comprehensive, focused manner required to adequately address the full range of climate needs. A potential approach to planning the observing system of the future is presented in this article. First, this article proposes that priority be given to the most critical needs as identified within the World Climate Research Program as Grand Challenges. These currently include seven important topics: melting ice and global consequences; clouds, circulation and climate sensitivity; carbon feedbacks in the climate system; understanding and predicting weather and climate extremes; water for the food baskets of the world; regional sea‐level change and coastal impacts; and near‐term climate prediction. For each Grand Challenge, observations are needed for long‐term monitoring, process studies and forecasting capabilities. Second, objective evaluations of proposed observing systems, including satellites, ground‐based and in situ observations as well as potentially new, unidentified observational approaches, can quantify the ability to address these climate priorities. And third, investments in effective climate observations will be economically important as they will offer a magnified return on investment that justifies a far greater development of observations to serve society's needs.

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Creating Climate Reference Datasets: CARDS Workshop on Adjusting Radiosonde Temperature Data for Climate Monitoring

Cited by 42 publications

References 17 publications

Robust Automated Quality Assurance of Radiosonde Temperatures

Robust Automated Quality Assurance of Radiosonde Temperatures

Utility of Radiosonde Wind Data in Representing Climatological Variations of Tropospheric Temperature and Baroclinicity in the Western Tropical Pacific

Designing the Climate Observing System of the Future

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