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What Do Observational Datasets Say about Modeled Tropospheric Temperature Trends since 1979?

J. Christy,B. Herman,R. Pielke,P. Klotzbach,R. McNider,J. Hnilo,R. Spencer,T. Chase,D. Douglass

Published 2010 in Remote Sensing

ABSTRACT

Updated tropical lower tropospheric temperature datasets covering the period 1979–2009 are presented and assessed for accuracy based upon recent publications and several analyses conducted here. We conclude that the lower tropospheric temperature (TLT) trend over these 31 years is +0.09 ± 0.03 °C decade−1. Given that the surface temperature (Tsfc) trends from three different groups agree extremely closely among themselves (~ +0.12 °C decade−1) this indicates that the “scaling ratio” (SR, or ratio of atmospheric trend to surface trend: TLT/Tsfc) of the observations is ~0.8 ± 0.3. This is significantly different from the average SR calculated from the IPCC AR4 model simulations which is ~1.4. This result indicates the majority of AR4 simulations tend to portray significantly greater warming in the troposphere relative to the surface than is found in observations. The SR, as an internal, normalized metric of model behavior, largely avoids the confounding influence of short-term fluctuations such as El Ninos which make direct comparison of trend magnitudes less confident, even over multi-decadal periods.

PUBLICATION RECORD

  • Publication year

    2010

  • Venue

    Remote Sensing

  • Publication date

    2010-09-15

  • Fields of study

    Computer Science, Environmental Science

  • Identifiers
    DOI 10.3390/rs2092148
  • External record

    Open on Semantic Scholar

  • Source metadata

    Semantic Scholar

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