Surface air temperature and its changes over the past 150 years

Abstract

Abstract. We review the surface air temperature record of the past 150 years, considering the homogeneity of the basic data and the standard errors of estimation of the average hemispheric and global estimates. We present global fields of surface temperature change over the two 20-year periods of greatest warming this century, 1925-1944 and 1978-1997. Over these periods, global temperatures rose by 0.37 ø and 0.32øC, respectively. The twentieth-century warming has been accompanied by a decrease in those areas of the world affected by exceptionally cool temperatures and to a lesser extent by increases in areas affected by exceptionally warm temperatures. In recent decades there have been much greater increases in night minimum temperatures than in day maximum temperatures, so that over 1950-1993 the diurnal temperature range has decreased by 0.08øC per decade. We discuss the recent divergence of surface and satellite temperature measurements of the lower troposphere and consider the last 150 years in the context of the last millennium. We then provide a globally complete absolute surface air temperature climatology on a 1 ø x 1 ø grid. This is primarily based on data for 1961-1990. Extensive interpolation had to be undertaken over both polar regions and in a few other regions where basic data are scarce, but we believe the climatology is the most consistent and reliable of absolute surface air temperature conditions over the world. The climatology indicates that the annual average surface temperature of the world is 14.0øC (14.6øC in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and 13.4øC for the Southern Hemisphere). The annual cycle of global mean temperatures follows that of the land-dominated NH, with a maximum in July of 15.9øC and a minimum in January of 12.2øC. INTRODUCTIONThe surface air temperature database has been extensively reviewed on several earlier occasions, most notably by Wigley et al. [1985, 1986]

Historical evolution of radiative forcing of climate

“…The contribution from anthropogenic aerosols (direct and indirect e!ect) is the major reason for this decline, but the two natural forcing mechanisms considered also contribute. Whether this decline in the total radiative forcing may have given rise to a surface temperature decrease in accordance with the observations (Jones et al, 1999) needs to be investigated in comprehensive climate models.…”

Cloud effects on the radiation budget based on ISCCP data (1991 to 1995)

“…Values of the effective surface temperature in the ISCCP results are based on the input data mentioned at the beginning and represent the emitting (skin) temperature of the solid or liquid surface. Ohmura and Wild (Personal communication, 2003) normalized their data to the mean atmospheric temperature at ground of 14°C given by Jones et al (1999) and Kiehl and Trenberth (1997) normalized to an earlier global average of about +15°C.…”

Space Storms and Space Weather Hazards

“…Figure 6. 11-year running average values of the Northern Hemisphere Land temperature derived from data compiled by Jones (1994) and Jones et al (1999), plotted together with the filtered solar cycle length based on weighting factors 1-2-1 and 1-2-2-2-1 respectively.…”