Calibration and Instrumental Errors in Early Measurements of Air Temperature

Camuffo, Dario

doi:10.1007/978-94-010-0371-1_11

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…It was necessary to get as many metadata as possible in order to reconstruct the detailed "history" of all the readings and perform a first homogenization based on objective information extracted from the station history and other related sources. The next step was to study instrumental problems, calibration, observational methodology, exposure, location; all of which were needed to establish the corrections required for the series (Camuffo 2002b;Cocheo and Camuffo 2002). The methodology is the same as that presented within Improve (Camuffo and Jones 2002) and later applied to the Histalp dataset (Böhm et al 2009) for the Greater Alpine Region.…”

Section: Data Homogenisation By Means Of Direct Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

500-year temperature reconstruction in the Mediterranean Basin by means of documentary data and instrumental observations

et al. 2010

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The paper reports the main results of the EU project Millennium in the Mediterranean area over the last 500 years. It analyses a long series of temperature from Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece. The series are obtained by combining indices from documentary sources from AD 1500 to the onset of regular instrumental observations. There is an ongoing discussion regarding the proper way of combining documentary and instrumental data and how to translate accurately the conventional indices from −3 to +3 into modern units, i.e. degree Celsius. This paper produces for the first time a number of early instrumental observations, in some cases (i.e. Italy and France) covering 350 years, including thereby the earliest regular observations after the invention of the thermometer. These Mediterranean data show that anomalous temperatures usually had only a locally limited effect, while only few extreme events had a widespread impact over the whole region, such as the summer of 2003. During the period from 1850 to the present day, the Mediterranean temperature anomaly was close to the Northern Hemisphere in spring and summer, while it was warmer in autumn and winter. Compared with the long-term instrumental records (i.e. 1655 onwards), the recent warming has not exceeded the natural past variability characterized by heating-cooling cycles with no significant long-term trends.

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Section: Data Homogenisation By Means Of Direct Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

500-year temperature reconstruction in the Mediterranean Basin by means of documentary data and instrumental observations

et al. 2010

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“…The procedure consisted in calculating for each month of the year the mean value of the difference between the temperature corresponding to midday and the temperature corresponding to sunrise. Accepting that the morning reading is an approach of the daily minimum temperature, and the midday reading an approach of the daily maximum temperature (Wheeler, ; Camuffo, ), these differences are an estimation of the diurnal range of temperature. The lack of variation between morning and midday readings would seem to preclude any external sitting of the instruments (Chenoweth, ), with minimum (maximum) temperatures higher (lower) than those corresponding to external exposure of instruments.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other source of error would be related to the concrete hour of the day in which the data were recorded (Camuffo, ). In this work we assume that midday figures approximate to the mean maxima (Wheeler, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early meteorological data in southern Spain during the Dalton Minimum

Rodrigo

2019

Intl Journal of Climatology

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The objective of this work is to present new meteorological data from southern Spain corresponding to the period 1785–1830. Data sources are early newspapers and medical studies interested in the influence of environment conditions on health and illness. Data correspond to five cities in the area (Cádiz, Seville, Málaga, Granada, and Cartagena). Around 16,000 new meteorological observations (temperature, pressure, number of rainy days, wind direction, and qualitative statements on rainfall, wind force, cloudiness, fog, and storms) were recorded. Database obtained is a set of scattered meteorological series, with short periods of observation, fragmented and with no homogeneous characteristics. However, these data may offer an overview on the climatic conditions in the area during the studied period, as well as interesting information on extreme events, as for instance floods in the 1780s decade, and the so‐called “year without summer” 1816.

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“…The Florentine instruments had the scale directly marked on the glass tube, but this good practice became popular only one century later. In general, the scale on early barometers was fixed to the support or to the capillary (or vice-versa) with an iron wire (Camuffo, 2002b). The result was a drift which lasted for years or decades.…”

Section: Correction Of Systematic Errorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Corrections of Systematic Errors, Data Homogenisation and Climatic Analysis of the Padova Pressure Series (1725-1999)

2006

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A short history of the series with daily observations of barometric pressure in Padova (since 1725) is made, with special reference to the types of barometers used, their locations, the types of corrections (which were only partial in the early period), the calibrations and the comparison with primary instruments. The paper also describes the homogenisation of the series and the procedures used to fill the small gaps. The Padova series was compared with previously well investigated series from the ADVICE and IMPROVE projects and especially with the nearby Milan series in order to check its reliability. Trend analysis shows an increase in pressure (some 1 hPa) during the last a hundred year. This trend is a common feature for Northern Italy. An effect of the increased air pressure is a local lowering of the Northern Mediterranean Sea level by 1 cm. The part of the year mostly affected by this increase is from late spring to August and corresponds to an extension of the hot season, characterised by an earlier start, and longer duration of the Azores Anticyclone. This reduces the penetration of the Atlantic disturbances in the Northern Mediterranean and the precipitation associated with the passage of fronts. This change is associated with an increase in thermoconvective activity with thunderstorms and heavy precipitation. This explains why, in the last decades, the annual total amount of precipitation is slightly decreased and at the same time the frequency of intense rainfall is increased. Moreover, a comparison of the day-to-day pressure variability with the Western Mediterranean Oscillation (WeMO) indicates a significant positive correlation during the late autumn-early winter period. An increase of the WeMO index means a strengthening of the baric dipole from Azores to Northern Italy, that could be explained by a deepening of the cyclonic circulation over northern Italy from November to January.

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Calibration and Instrumental Errors in Early Measurements of Air Temperature

Cited by 18 publications

References 12 publications

500-year temperature reconstruction in the Mediterranean Basin by means of documentary data and instrumental observations

500-year temperature reconstruction in the Mediterranean Basin by means of documentary data and instrumental observations

Early meteorological data in southern Spain during the Dalton Minimum

Corrections of Systematic Errors, Data Homogenisation and Climatic Analysis of the Padova Pressure Series (1725-1999)

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