Open AccessMeasuring global temperatures: Their analysis and interpretation
Author(s) -
Pielke Roger A.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2011eo300007
Subject(s) - global temperature , climatology , metric (unit) , global warming , climate change , interpretation (philosophy) , environmental science , meteorology , geology , geography , computer science , oceanography , economics , operations management , programming language
This book documents how global surface temperature anomalies (GSTAs) and multidecadal trends are obtained. While ocean heat content change is a more robust metric with which to diagnose global warming, GSTAs have become a primary icon in the climate change debate. The book begins with a brief overview chapter of the Earth's radiative energy budget followed by two chapters on measurement approaches to monitoring temperature, including an interesting discussion of temperature scales. Chapters 4–6 concern measuring land and ocean temperatures. Chapters 7 and 8 discuss global networks and how point measurements are converted to obtain global averages. Chapter 9 focuses on changes in time of temperatures, including maximum and minimum values. This is followed by a short chapter on temperature profiles through the atmosphere and a final chapter of recommendations for future observations of this metric.