Climate Variability and Extremes during the Past 100 years

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. The Observational Climate Record

   1. A Focus on Climate During the Past 100 Years

      • S. Brönnimann, T. Ewen, J. Luterbacher, H. F. Diaz, R. S. Stolarski, U. Neu

      Pages 1-25

   2. From the Bottom to the Stratosphere Arctic Climate Features as Seen from the First International Polar Year (1882–1883) Until the End of World War II

      • C. Lüdecke

      Pages 29-45

   3. Arctic Sea Ice Data Sets in the Context of Climate Change During the 20th Century

      • G. V. Alekseev, S. I. Kuzmina, A. P. Nagurny, N. E. Ivanov

      Pages 47-63

   4. The Evolving SST Record from ICOADS

      • S. D. Woodruff, H. F. Diaz, E. C. Kent, R. W. Reynolds, S. J. Worley

      Pages 65-83

   5. Upper-air Temperature Trends: Current Problems and Some Recent Results

      • A. M. Sterin, V. M. Khan, K. G. Rubinshtein

      Pages 85-101

   6. Atmospheric Reanalyses and Climate Variations

      • S. Uppala, A. Simmons, D. Dee, P. Kållberg, J.-N. Thépaut

      Pages 103-117

   7. Constructing Climate Quality Atmospheric Temperatures from Satellite Microwave Measurements

      • C. A. Mears

      Pages 119-128

   8. Total Ozone Observations During the Past 80 Years

      • S. Brönnimann, C. Vogler, J. Staehelin, R. Stolarski, G. Hansen

      Pages 129-140

3. Climate Trends: Forcings and Processes

   1. Arctic Sea Ice Variability During the Last Half Century

      • J. Stroeve, W. Maslowski

      Pages 143-154

   2. Decadal Changes in Surface Radiative Fluxes and Their Role in Global Climate Change

      • M. Wild

      Pages 155-167

   3. Observed Interdecadal Changes in Cloudiness: Real or Spurious?

      • J. R. Norris

      Pages 169-178

   4. The Role of Land-Atmosphere Interactions for Climate Variability in Europe

      • S. I. Seneviratne, R. Stöckli

      Pages 179-193

   5. Aerosol Effects on Precipitation Locally and Globally

      • U. Lohmann

      Pages 195-206

4. Climate Variability and Extremes

   1. Human Activity and Climate Change in Africa

      • H. Paeth

      Pages 209-220

   2. Impacts of Climate Variability, Trends and NAO on 20th Century European Plant Phenology

      • A. Menzel, N. Estrella, C. Schleip

      Pages 221-233

   3. Summer Heat Waves in Western Europe, Their Past Change and Future Projections

      • P. M. Della-Marta, M. Beniston

      Pages 235-250

   4. Distribution Changes of Seasonal Mean Temperature in Observations and Climate Change Scenarios

      • S. C. Scherrer, M. A. Liniger, C. Appenzeller, S. C. Scherrer, M. A. Liniger, C. Appenzeller

      Pages 251-267

5. Chemical Changes and the Variability of the Stratosphere

   1. Long-term Tropospheric Ozone Trends: A Critical Review

      • J. Staehelin, C. Schnadt Poberaj, J. Staehelin, C. Schnadt Poberaj

      Pages 271-282

   2. Simulation of Long-term Evolution of Stratospheric Dynamics and Chemistry: Role of Natural and Anthropogenic Forcings

      • M. Dameris, R. Deckert, M. Dameris, R. Deckert

      Pages 283-291

Large progress has been made in the past few years towards quantifying and understanding climate variability during past centuries. At the same time, present-day climate has been studied using state-of-the-art data sets and tools with respect to the physical and chemical mechanisms governing climate variability. Both the understanding of the past and the knowledge of the processes are important for assessing and attributing the anthropogenic effect on present and future climate. The most important time period in this context is the past approximately 100 years, which comprises large natural variations and extremes (such as long droughts) as well as anthropogenic influences, most pronounced in the past few decades. Recent and ongoing research efforts steadily improve the observational record of the 20th century, while atmospheric circulation models are used to underpin the mechanisms behind large climatic variations. Atmospheric chemistry and composition are important for understanding climate variability and change, and considerable progress has been made in the past few years in this field. The evolving integration of these research areas in a more comprehensive analysis of recent climate variability was reflected in the organisation of a workshop “Climate variability and extremes in the past 100 years” in Gwatt near Thun (Switzerland), 24–26 July 2006. The aim of this workshop was to bring together scientists working on data issues together with statistical climatologists, modellers, and atmospheric chemists to discuss gaps in our understanding of climate variability during the past approximately 100 years.

• Aerosol
• Climate change
• Climate extremes
• Climate variability
• Cloud
• Precipitation
• cloudiness
• satellite
• temperature

"This volume brings together a fascinating and varied set of papers on climatic variability and change. The papers highlight what modellers can learn by greater study of observations, while the latter were informed about the types of observations required to reduce model uncertainties." Phil Jones, University of East Anglia

"The authors of this volume extend the classical reanalysis perspective for studying climate phenomena during the past 100 years!" Heinz Wanner, Director, Swiss NCCR Climate

'The book provides interesting and topical summaries of the state of knowledge on a number of key global climate variables such as sea surface temperature, upper air temperature, and stratospheric ozone', EOS, Michael Manton, Monash University, Australia

 

 

• Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

  Stefan Brönnimann, Tracy Ewen

• NCCR Climate and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research and Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland

  Jürg Luterbacher

• NOAA-ESRL, Boulder, USA

  Henry F. Diaz

• NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA

  Richard S. Stolarski

• ProClim, Bern, Switzerland

  Urs Neu

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