Vose, R.S. and Applequist, Scott and Menne, M.J. and Williams Jr., C.N. and Thorne, Peter (2012) An intercomparison of temperature trends in the U.S. Historical Climatology Network and recent atmospheric reanalyses. Geophysical Research Letters, 39 (L10703). ISSN 0094-8276

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Abstract

Temperature trends over 1979–2008 in the U.S. Historical Climatology Network (HCN) are compared with those in six recent atmospheric reanalyses. For the conterminous United States, the trend in the adjusted HCN (0.327 °C dec−1) is generally comparable to the ensemble mean of the reanalyses (0.342 °C dec−1). It is also well within the range of the reanalysis trend estimates (0.280 to 0.437 °C dec−1). The bias adjustments play a critical role, as the raw HCN dataset displays substantially less warming than all of the reanalyses. HCN has slightly lower maximum and minimum temperature trends than those reanalyses with hourly temporal resolution, suggesting the HCN adjustments may not fully compensate for recent non-climatic artifacts at some stations. Spatially, both the adjusted HCN and all of the reanalyses indicate widespread warming across the nation during the study period. Overall, the adjusted HCN is in broad agreement with the suite of reanalyses.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	intercomparison; temperature trends; U.S. Historical Climatology Network; atmospheric reanalyses;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units, ICARUS
Item ID:	6493
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL051387
Depositing User:	Peter Thorne
Date Deposited:	22 Oct 2015 10:06
Journal or Publication Title:	Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher:	American Geophysical Union
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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