Source Note: Introduction to the Climate Records of Imperial China

Pei, Qing; Forêt, Philippe

doi:10.1093/envhis/emy052

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…This information could be compiled at a later stage in an inventory for noninstrumental observations. The same holds for inches of rain and snow in China (Yu-xue-feng-cun; Pei et al 2018). Unlike the measurement of depth in a snow/rainfall gauge, these numbers refer to the depth of soil seeped through by rainwater for example (Ge et al 2005;Wang and Zhang 1988).…”

Section: Methods Criteria For Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unlocking Pre-1850 Instrumental Meteorological Records: A Global Inventory

Brönnimann

Allan

Ashcroft

et al. 2019

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

105

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Instrumental meteorological measurements from periods prior to the start of national weather services are designated “early instrumental data.” They have played an important role in climate research as they allow daily to decadal variability and changes of temperature, pressure, and precipitation, including extremes, to be addressed. Early instrumental data can also help place twenty-first century climatic changes into a historical context such as defining preindustrial climate and its variability. Until recently, the focus was on long, high-quality series, while the large number of shorter series (which together also cover long periods) received little to no attention. The shift in climate and climate impact research from mean climate characteristics toward weather variability and extremes, as well as the success of historical reanalyses that make use of short series, generates a need for locating and exploring further early instrumental measurements. However, information on early instrumental series has never been electronically compiled on a global scale. Here we attempt a worldwide compilation of metadata on early instrumental meteorological records prior to 1850 (1890 for Africa and the Arctic). Our global inventory comprises information on several thousand records, about half of which have not yet been digitized (not even as monthly means), and only approximately 20% of which have made it to global repositories. The inventory will help to prioritize data rescue efforts and can be used to analyze the potential feasibility of historical weather data products. The inventory will be maintained as a living document and is a first, critical, step toward the systematic rescue and reevaluation of these highly valuable early records. Additions to the inventory are welcome.

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Section: Methods Criteria For Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unlocking Pre-1850 Instrumental Meteorological Records: A Global Inventory

Brönnimann

Allan

Ashcroft

et al. 2019

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

105

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“…Natural hazards (e.g. droughts and floods) were regarded as displaying Tien's displeasure with the emperor and his court and were often followed by uprisings and rebellions (Perry, 2001;Pei and Forêt, 2018). To help them understand the long-term pattern of such hazards, imperial governments appointed specialists such as Taishi (imperial historians) or Qintian Jian (imperial astronomers) to record unusual and/or extreme weather events.…”

Section: Types Of Documentary Evidence Used To Create Index Seriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate indices in historical climate reconstructions: A global state-of-the-art

Nash¹,

Adamson²,

Ashcroft³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. Evidence contained within historical documents and inscriptions provides an important record of climate variability for periods prior to the onset of systematic meteorological data collection. A common approach used by historical climatologists to convert such qualitative documentary evidence into continuous quantitative proxy data is through the generation of ordinal-scale climate indices. There is, however, considerable variability in the types of phenomena reconstructed using an index approach and the practice of index development in different parts of the world. This review, written by members of the PAGES CRIAS Working Group – a collective of climate historians and historical climatologists researching Climate Reconstructions and Impacts from the Archives of Societies – provides the first global synthesis of the use of the index approach in climate reconstruction. We begin by summarising the range of studies that have used indices for climate reconstruction across six continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australia) plus the world's oceans. We then outline the different methods by which indices are developed in each of these regions, including a discussion of the processes adopted to verify and calibrate index series, and the measures used to express confidence and uncertainty. We conclude with a series of recommendations to guide the development of future index-based climate reconstructions to maximise their effectiveness for use by climate modellers and in multiproxy climate reconstructions.

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“…The classical Twenty-Four Histories (二十四史), for example, provide a major social archive for Chinese scholars (Zhang 2004). Such archives exist because of emperors' interest in the "Mandate of Heaven" (Pei and Forêt 2018), whereby unusually bad weather or strange phenomenon could be considered the result of a ruler's failures.…”

Section: Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%