Upper-Air Temperature Trends over the Globe, 1958–1989

Abstract

New time series of the hemispheric and global mean temperature anomalies in the troposphere and lower stratosphere are presented for the period May 1958 through December 1989. The statistics are based on objective monthly analyses of all available daily soundings from the global rawinsonde network (?700?800 stations). The results are compared with Angell's earlier statistics based on a subset of 63 stations. Excellent agreement is found with these earlier results as well as with an 11-year set of satellite-derived microwave sounding unit data. These detailed comparisons support the conclusion that the rawinsonde network can provide reliable estimates of the actual interseasonal hemispheric-scale temperature changes that have occurred between the earth's surface and about 20 km (50 mb) height since the 1950s.