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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 2, NUMBER 4, APRIL 1989

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
TREND ANALYSIS

Item #d89apr42

"Precipitation Fluctuations Over Global Land Areas Since the Late 1800's" H.F. Diaz (ERL, NOAA, 325 Broadway, Boulder CO 80303), R.S. Bradley, J.K. Eischeid, J. Geophys. Res., 94(D1), 1195-1210, Jan. 20, 1989.

Objectives of the study were to delineate the long-term temporal and spatial characteristics of precipitation variations; compare these results with the northern hemisphere study and assess the degree of similarity of spatial change during recent decades in comparison with GCM experiments using doubled CO₂ concentrations; examine plausible mechanisms that may have contributed to the observed changes. An analysis of southern hemisphere land precipitation records indicates an increase in mean annual precipitation since the 1940s, with positive anomalies, compared to the 1921-1960 reference period, occurring during approximately the last 15 years in all seasons except southern summer (December-February). The combined data sets of both hemispheres provided land precipitation indices for the tropics, subtropics and extratropical latitudes as well as a global average continental index.

Item #d89apr43

"Variations and Trends in Tropospheric and Stratospheric Global Temperatures, 1958-87," J.K. Angell (ARL, NOAA, Silver Spring MD 20910), J. Clim., 1(12), 1296-1313, Dec. 1988.

Examines variations and trends for seven climatic zones, both hemispheres, and the world for the intervals 1958-87 and 1973-87, based on 63 well-distributed radiosonde stations. Among other results these data indicate increases of year-average global temperature at the surface, and in the tropospheric 850-300 mb layer, of 0.08C (10yr)-1 and 0.09C (10 yr)-1, respectively. Discusses in detail the close relation between sea-surface temperature in the eastern equatorial Pacific and tropospheric temperature in the tropics.

Item #d89apr44

"Urbanization: Its Detection and Effect in the United States Climate Record," T.R. Karl (NCDC, NOAA, Fed. Bldg., Asheville NC 28801), ibid., 1(11), 1099-1123, Nov. 1988.

Develops equations that relate the effect of urban growth, measured by increasing population, to the mean seasonal and annual temperature: the diurnal maximum, minimum, average and range. Results indicate urbanization decreases the daily maxima in all seasons except winter and the temperature range in all seasons. It increases the diurnal minima and the daily mean in all seasons. The impact of urbanization is not large in relation to decadal changes of temperature in the U.S. due to the greater proportion of rural stations in the study.

Item #d89apr45

"Predictions of Average Heating of the Earth-Atmosphere System in the Next 40 Years by an Increase of the Greenhouse Effect," M. Deserti (Ist. FISBAT, CNR, Bologna, Italy), T. Claudio, Acqua Aria, No. 2, 211-226, Feb. 1988. In Italian.

Describes predictions of mean concentration trends for atmospheric gases as well as trends of the consequent atmospheric heating from climate models. Concludes that, should current concentrations remain stable during the next decades, the global climate will still be subjected to strong heating effects.