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Spatial analysis of secular temperature fluctuations
Author(s) -
Lawson Merlin P.,
Balling Robert C.,
Peters Albert J.,
Rundquist Donald C.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.58
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-0088
pISSN - 0196-1748
DOI - 10.1002/joc.3370010405
Subject(s) - secular variation , contiguity , climatology , spatial variability , variation (astronomy) , complement (music) , geography , econometrics , statistical physics , statistics , geology , mathematics , computer science , physics , geophysics , biochemistry , chemistry , complementation , astrophysics , gene , phenotype , operating system
The identification of global trends in secular temperature has resulted in various theories explaining temporal climatic fluctuations. Few investigators have attempted to regionalize these trends as derived from climatic statistics. This study attempts to: (1) review methodological problems inherent in the study of climatic fluctuations; (2) suggest a methodology to overcome some of the difficulties; and (3) develop discrete regions of temperature variation. The results presented in this study significantly complement the information derived by depicting large areal units by climatic summary statistics. Nine discrete regions of temperature trend are developed for the United States, and the contiguity of the resulting regions suggests that climatic fluctuations display distinct spatial patterns.