CLIMATE DATA
Eleanour Snow
TXESS Revolution
INSTRUMENTAL
DATA
direct measurements of
temperature, rainfall,
humidity, insolation, cloud
cover, atmospheric
gasses, etc.
SATELLITE DATA
•
since late 1970’s
•
world-wide
coverage
•
temperature, cloud
cover, atmospheric
gasses,
particulates
3/4 OF THE EARTH IS COVERED
BY OCEAN
•
direct temperature
data for about 100
years
•
spotty in coverage
•
satellite data more
recently
ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC
•
direct data for about 40
years
•
ice core data to about
800,000 years ago
LAND
•
longest temperature
record is about 450
years long
•
excellent
data/coverage for
about 50 years
CENTRAL ENGLAND TEMPERATURE RECORD
note plot is difference from late 20th century average
red line is 5 year running average
P
ROXY CLIMATE DATA
• How do you
determine climate
data older than the
instrumental record?
•
Measure a variable
that responds to
climate forcing in a
predictable and
reliable way.
•
can be chemical
•
can by geological
•
can be biological
Proxy climate data is calibrated with direct instrumental
data for the periods in which they overlap.
This increases confidence in the reliability of the data
back in time.
OXYGEN (and other)
ISOTOPES
• Isotopic data are among the most reliable proxy data
• Oxygen isotope differentiation happens in a reliable and known way,
•
and is a function of temperature
Therefore oxygen isotope composition is a proxy for temperature
CORAL GROWTH
•
Corals have annual
growth bands, like trees
•
Corals can live for 100’s
of years
•
Corals create their
skeletons from seawater
•
therefore they record
the chemistry of the
seawater
CORES OF OCEAN FLOOR
SEDIMENT
•
most deep ocean sediment is the
skeletal remains of small organisms
living in the ocean
•
some is dust and sediment blown or
washed in from land
•
geochemistry can be used to tell
temperature much like coral
geochemistry
•
sediment type tells of climate of
oceans and land
•
records go back to late Cretaceous
Three types of
data:
•Temperature:
from isotopic
composition of ice
•CO2: from air
bubbles in ice
•Dust: directly
observed in ice
All tell the same
story
VOSTOK ICE CORE
•
LAKES ARE DEPOSITORIES OF
CLIMATE DATA
organic remains of
things that lived
there
•
geochemistry
•
ecology
•
wind-borne
pollens
•
varves in select
lakes
POLLEN
•
records go back hundreds
of thousands of years
•
lakes yield most complete
records
•
show what species and
groups of species grew in
surrounding areas
•
climate change is
recorded by changes in
local ecology
LAKE POLLEN RECORD
TREE RINGS
•
trees live hundreds of years
•
in some environments, can be
preserved for thousands more
•
forests (with living and dead
trees) provide overlapping data
sets
•
annual growth bands record
plant stresses
•
correlation with other indicators
to complete the story
•
most trees are sensitive to
rainfall
•
some species are sensitive to
temperature
LOESS
•
large deposits of windblown sediment
•
small scale: sand-hills of
Nebraska
•
mega scale: China
•
record periods of dry
climate -- interglacial
periods
LOESS RECORD
•
China
•
Records wet/dry
conditions
ANECDOTAL HISTORICAL RECORDS
Price of wheat
in Europe
Date of grape
harvest
Ship Captains
records of seaice
Old paintings
and
photographs
Literature
CLIMATE DATA
INSTRUMENTAL
RECORD
PROXY RECORD
direct CO2 - 800,000
years
geological
•
temperature - 450 years
record
•
global coverage since
1980
•extends
•
•
•chemical,
•calibrated
record
biological,
to instrumental
through fossil
Together they form a complete
picture of Earth’s past climate
•
credits -- pictures and graphs
•
http://www.changecollege.org.uk/img/HadCET_1772_to_2009.gif
•
http://www.tidetech.org/system/files/u1/gulfstream%20image.gif
•
http://aim.hamptonu.edu/library/p7hg_img_2/fullsize/co2graph_fs.jpg
•
http://discovermagazine.com/2006/feb/megadeath-in-mexico/megadeath-treerings.jpg
•
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/noaa-n_satellite.jpg?w=640
•
http://www.gdargaud.net/Antarctica/DC2005/20050406_10_WeatherStation.jpg
•
http://www.thenunu.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/assn03-lightning-field.jpg
•
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Misc_pollen.jpg
•
http://www.cis.umassd.edu/~gleung/xshan34.jpg
•
http://serc.carleton.edu/images/research_education/corals/500k_years_ago.png
•
http://ocean.tamu.edu/Quarterdeck/QD6.2Graphics/08_coral_figure.gif
•
http://67.220.225.10/~clim2165/cs/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/porites-cores.jpg
•
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/lia/16.gif
•
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2009/09/03/arctic-lake-climate.jpg
•
http://www.oceanleadership.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/coreviewsm.jpg
•
http://earth.unh.edu/esci402/docs/oxygen%20isotope%20stratigraphy.jpg
•
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn125/SpectrumSci/21inchGalileo.jpg
•
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/paleo.html
•
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tGHzOEp3UKA/SxA1dtDXJzI/AAAAAAAAAyY/lcf6FGDfmbc/s1600/GILLetal_2009_Pleisto