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Homogenization of time series from Portugal and its former colonies for the period from the late 19th to the early 21st century
Author(s) -
Bližňák Vojtěch,
Valente Maria Antónia,
Bethke Julia
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international journal of climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.58
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-0088
pISSN - 0899-8418
DOI - 10.1002/joc.4151
Subject(s) - homogenization (climate) , climatology , standard deviation , proxy (statistics) , statistics , mathematics , data series , environmental science , econometrics , geology , biodiversity , ecology , biology
Three homogenization software packages – AnClim , RhTestsV3 and HOMER – have been applied to monthly and annual temperature and pressure series from Portugal and its ex‐colonies in Africa and Asia to detect non‐climatic breaks. Homogenization tests in both absolute and relative mode were performed with an a posteriori statistical assessment to select the most probable breakpoints. Time series from neighbouring stations as well as reanalyses data were used as reference series. The reanalyses data sets were used due to lack of suitable neighbouring stations and also to test reanalyses as proxy data. A list of probable shifts is produced and will be used to support future global reanalyses. Moreover, temperature and pressure series were adjusted using adjustment factors that were obtained by calculating the difference between certain periods before and after the breaks. The accuracy of the adjusted series was verified subjectively (visually) and objectively using three verification methods: correlation coefficient, central root‐mean‐square error and standard deviation. A positive impact of the applied adjustment in terms of all three scores was found in a majority of cases.