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

Abstract

Air temperature (TA) records from automatic weather stations (AWS) in central Greenland and associated Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) brightness temperature (TB) 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 TA record has been converted to the equivalent basis of Kenton by a technique based on the ratio of the contemporaneous daily average TB data from the two locations. The accuracy of this technique has been statistically tested using 16 months of contemporaneous TA and TB 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.