Original Articles

Uncertainties of Temperature Observation Data in IPCC Assessment Report

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  • 1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China;
    2. Bureau of Science and Technology for Resources and Environment, CAS, Beijing 100864, China

Received date: 2009-03-25

  Revised date: 2209-05-21

  Online published: 2009-07-25

Supported by

Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.KZCX2-YW-305, KZCX2-YW-Q1-01, KZCX2-YW-314; National Key Science and Technology Program,No.2007BAC03A01-01,2007BAC03A11

Abstract

The global warming conclusion is given in 4th IPCC Assessment Report. This paper analyses uncertainties of surface temperature rise in recent 100 years from data source aspect referred in IPCC report, including spatial distribution of surface temperature observation stations, temperature series length, temperature reliability, urban heat island effect etc. It is concluded that (1) the coverage of surface temperature observation station in global skin has been low in recent 100 years; (2) spatial distribution of data source in some grid boxes is uneven; (3) there are limited long time series of temperature, and there are significant differences of annual temperature record quantities in different time periods; (4) deficient successive observations in many stations lead to low reliability of mean annual temperature; (5) most temperature records are obtained from urban stations, while heat island effect is  not fully excluded in climate change research.

Cite this article

WANG Fang1, GE Quansheng1, CHEN Panqin2 . Uncertainties of Temperature Observation Data in IPCC Assessment Report[J]. Acta Geographica Sinica, 2009 , 64(7) : 828 -838 . DOI: 10.11821/xb200907007

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