Monitoring global climate change: the case of greenhouse warming

Abstract

Recent record high temperatures and drought conditions in many regions of the United States have prompted heightened concern about whether these are early manifestations of the global greenhouse warming projected by the major climate models. An improved global climate monitoring and reporting capability is urgently needed in order to ensure that interpretation of climate trends and comparison with model projections are based on the most complete and accurate datasets available. Priority should be placed on identifying those key variables for which data are already being collected, and then integrating these quality controlled datasets into one consolidated climate monitoring report that would be issued at regular intervals. Quality control is essential in order to avoid errors in the datasets that lead to misleading interpretations that further confound the identification of an anthropogenic climate change "signal' against the background of natural climate variability. -from Author