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Assessing the ability of the Köppen System to delineate the general world pattern of climates
Author(s) -
Triantafyllou G. N.,
Tsonis A. A.
Publication year - 1994
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 - 10.1029/94gl01992
Subject(s) - climatology , precipitation , northern hemisphere , climate system , global warming , environmental science , climate change , southern hemisphere , climate extremes , climate zones , climate model , geography , meteorology , geology , oceanography
The Köppen climate classification system [Köppen, 1923] is a scheme that provides an objective numerical basis for defining regional climatic types based on temperature and precipitation. Through the years it has been used as a scientific and teaching tool for prescribing the general world pattern of climates. Here for the first time an evaluation of the system is performed by employing coextensive temperature and precipitation data over the N. Hemisphere for the last 140 years. First the global pattern of climate type sensitivity is obtained. From this pattern it is discovered that several climate types exhibit a rather strong variability. Since all climate types depend on temperature we then tested whether or not the above variability is due to the fact that over the last 140 years the global climate system exhibits a well documented positive temperature trend known as global warming. We found that the Köppen system is rather insensitive to the observed global warming and concluded that overall the system performs rather poorly over Europe and Asia whereas it appears adequate over N. America and N. Africa.