Composite Temperature Record from the Greenland Summit, 1987–1994: Synthesis of Multiple Automatic Weather Station Records and SSM/I Brightness Temperatures

Date

1996-06-01

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Shuman, C. A., Bindschadler, R. A., Fahnestock, M. A., Alley, R. B., & Stearns, C. R. (1996). Composite Temperature Record from the Greenland Summit, 1987–1994: Synthesis of Multiple Automatic Weather Station Records and SSM/I Brightness Temperatures, Journal of Climate, 9(6), 1421-1428. Retrieved Dec 30, 2021, from https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/clim/9/6/1520-0442_1996_009_1421_ctrftg_2_0_co_2.xml

Rights

This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
Public Domain Mark 1.0

Subjects

Abstract

Air temperature (Tᴀ) records from automatic weather stations (AWS) in central Greenland and associated Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) brightness temperature (Tʙ) data (37 GHz, vertical polarization) have been used to create a composite, daily, monthly, and annual average temperature record of the Greenland summit for the period 1987–1994. The record is derived primarily from near-surface temperatures from a single station; AWS Cathy (May 1987 to May 1989), which was moved 28 km and became AWS Kenton (starting in June 1989 and continuing). The Cathy daily average Tᴀ record has been converted to the equivalent basis of Kenton by a technique based on the ratio of the contemporaneous daily average Tʙ data from the two locations. The accuracy of this technique has been statistically tested using 16 months of contemporaneous Tᴀ and Tʙ data from the GISP2 and Kenton AWS. The resulting composite temperature record provides a multiyear dataset for comparison to other climate records from the Greenland summit.