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Mountain Station pressure as an indicator of climate change
Author(s) -
Toumi Ralf,
Hartell Nigel,
Bignell Ken
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1999gl900351
Subject(s) - troposphere , radiosonde , climatology , environmental science , global warming , climate change , surface pressure , hydrostatic pressure , hydrostatic equilibrium , atmospheric sciences , geology , oceanography , physics , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics
Surface temperature observations have been used to infer a global warming of about 0.7° K over the last century. Here, we present a new way of deriving temperature trends from observations of mountain surface pressure. From the hydrostatic equation it can be shown that a warming below the mountain increases the local pressure. This signal increases with height. The derived temperature trends from a few sites are consistent with reported regional warmings and a recent acceleration. These results provide independent confirmation of regional warming of the lower troposphere on a longer time scale than is currently available from radiosondes and satellites.