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Minimum error estimates of global mean temperature through optimal arrangement of gauges
Author(s) -
Hardin James W.,
North Gerald R.,
Shen Samuel S.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
environmetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.68
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-095X
pISSN - 1180-4009
DOI - 10.1002/env.3170030102
Subject(s) - mean squared error , limiting , mathematics , statistics , sampling error , mean radiant temperature , sampling (signal processing) , observational error , computer science , geology , climate change , mechanical engineering , oceanography , filter (signal processing) , engineering , computer vision
This paper considers the minimum mean squared error (MSE) incurred in estimating an idealized earth's global average temperature with a finite network of point gauges located over the globe. We use a spectral MSE formalism to find the optimal locations for N gauges in the problem of estimating the earth's global average temperature. Limiting MSE configurations are obtained as the limiting least error case for randomly distributed samples of size N . Our results suggest that for N greater than about 60, one can obtain estimates such that the amount of measured variance due to sampling error is less than 10%, a result likely to be acceptable to climatologists.