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Here is a compilation of term papers on ‘Climatology’ for class 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short term papers on ‘Climatology’ especially written for school and college students.
Term Paper on Climatology
Term Paper Contents:
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- Term Paper on the Introduction to Climatology
- Term Paper on Meteorology and Climatology
- Term Paper on the Scales in Climatology
- Term Paper on the Subfields of Climatology
- Term Paper on Climatic Records and Statistics
1. Term Paper on the Introduction to Climatology:
Climatology is the science that seeks to describe and explain the nature of climate, why it differs from place to place, and how it is related to other elements of the natural environment and to human activities. The term comes from the Greek words, klima, referring to the supposed slope of the earth and approximating our concept of latitude, and logos, a discourse or study. Climatology is closely allied with, but often confused with meteorology and although they study similar things, they are separated by the length of time over which they operate.
Climatology, once the study of ‘average weather’, now encompasses the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, land surface and biosphere. Modern climatology includes not only these components but importantly their interactions involving detailed global observing systems and complex computer-based numerical models. People’s interest in climatology has been and is likely to continue to be concerned with social issues of habitability and sustainability.
Today, the atmosphere is undergoing global changes unprecedented in human history and, although changes as large as those that we are witnessing have occurred in the geological past,’relatively few have happened with the speed which also characterises today’s climate changes. Concentrations of greenhouse gases are increasing, stratospheric ozone is being depleted and the changing chemical composition of the atmosphere is reducing its ability to cleanse itself through oxidation.
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These global changes are threatening the balance of climatic conditions under which life evolved and is sustained. Temperatures are rising, ultraviolet radiation is increasing at the surface and pollutant levels are increasing. Many of these changes can be traced to industrialisation, deforestation and other activities of a human population that is itself increasing at a very rapid rate.
Climatology today embraces the study of all these characteristics, components, interactions and feedbacks. Global climate system changes resulting from human influence have been described as ‘climatological catastrophes’. They are slow to develop and, therefore, may not become apparent until their effects have become dangerously advanced. The iconic example of a modern ‘climatological catastrophe’ is the 1985 British discovery of declining ozone abundance over the Antarctic station of Halley Bay.
Research showed that the so-called Antarctic ozone hole had been increasing in depth since the late 1970s and today stratospheric ozone concentrations at the South Pole in spring (October) are less than half of the values they had only 30 years ago. Climatology is concerned with the study of chemical changes and with the radiative balance of the earth. Trace gases emanating from human activities today equal, and perhaps even exceed, emissions from natural sources.
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The greenhouse gases which absorb infrared radiation [water vapour, carbon dioxide, ozone, methane, nitrous oxide and the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)], play a major role in the earth’s energy budget and climate through the greenhouse effect. The earth’s radiative budget is controlled by the amount of incident solar radiation that is absorbed by the planet and by the thermal absorptivity of the gases in the atmosphere which controls the balancing emitted infrared radiation.
Radiation from the Sun drives the climate of the earth and, indeed, of the other planets. Solar radiation is absorbed and, over the mean annual cycle, this absorption is balanced by radiation emitted from the earth. This global radiative balance, which is a function of the surface and atmospheric characteristics, of the earth’s orbital geometry and of solar radiation itself, controls the habitability of the earth, mean temperatures, the existence of water in its three phase states.
These characteristics, together with the effects of the rotation of the earth on its axis, determine the dynamics of the atmosphere and ocean, and the development and persistence of snow and ice masses. Over very long time-scales, those commensurate with the lifetime of the earth, astronomical, geological and biological processes control persistence of ice caps and glaciers; the biota; rock structures and global geochemical cycling.
There are two different and complementary time frames of importance in climatology. The first is the evolutionary time-scale which controls the very long-term aspects of the climate components and those factors which force it such as the physics and chemistry of the planet itself and the luminosity of the Sun. Viewed in this time frame, the earth’s climate is prey to the forces of astro-and geophysics.
Within this very long time-scale, it is possible to take a ‘snapshot’ view of the climate system and, in this ‘quasi-instantaneous’ view, the shortest times-scale processes are most evident. Of these, the most important are the latitudinal distribution of absorbed solar radiation (large at low latitudes and much less near the poles) as compared to the emitted thermal infrared radiation which is roughly the same at all latitudes.
This latitudinal imbalance of net radiation for the surface-plus-atmosphere system as a whole (positive in low latitudes and negative in higher latitudes) combined with the effect of the earth’s rotation on its axis produces the dynamical circulation system of the atmosphere.
The latitudinal radiative imbalance tends to warm air which rises in equatorial regions and would sink bin polar-regions were it not for the rotation of the earth. The westerly waves in the upper troposphere in mid-latitudes and the associated high and low pressure systems are the product of planetary rotation affecting the thermally-driven atmospheric circulation.
The overall atmospheric circulation pattern comprises thermally direct cells in low latitudes, strong waves in the mid-latitudes and weak direct cells in polar-regions. This circulation, combined with the vertical distribution of temperature, represent the major aspects of the atmospheric climate system.
The state of the climate system at any time is determined by the forcing’s acting upon it and the complex and interlocking internal feedbacks that these forcing’s prompt. In the broadest sense, a feedback occurs when a portion of the output from an action is added to the input so that the output is further modified. The result of such a loop system can either be an amplification (a positive feedback) of the process or a dampening (a negative feedback); positive feedbacks enhance a perturbation whereas negative feedbacks oppose the original disturbance.
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If some external perturbation, say an increase in solar luminosity, acts to increase the global surface temperature then snow and ice will melt and their overall areas reduce in extent. These cryospheric elements are bright and white (i.e. their albedo, the ratio of reflected to incident radiation, is high), reflecting almost all the solar radiation incident upon them. The surface albedo, and probably the planetary albedo (the reflectivity of the whole atmosphere plus surface system as seen from ‘outside’ the planet), will decrease as the snow and ice areas reduce.
As a consequence, a smaller amount of solar radiation will be reflected away from the planet and more absorbed so that temperatures will increase further. A further decrease in snow and ice results from this increased temperature and the process continues. This positive climate feedback mechanism is known as the ice- albedo feedback mechanism.
Paleo-reconstructions of the earth’s climate system, particularly from the most recent record over the past 100 000 years, indicate that climate does not respond to forcing in a smooth and gradual way. Instead, responses can be rapid, and sometimes discontinuous, especially in the case of warm forcing. If this is correct, a lesson we might learn from the past is that a possible response of the climate system to human-induced greenhouse gas build-up could come in ‘jumps’ whose timing and magnitude are very hard, perhaps impossible, to predict.
Another message is that climate models, with which we hope to predict future climates, must be able to capture such paleo-climate records, particularly apparent discontinuities. Although we cannot as yet predict future climatological states, we often behave as if we can. Policy development, business, financial and even personal decisions are made every day around the world as if we knew what climates people will face in the future.
While local-scale climatic dependencies may seem rather weak, technology and engineering, international trade and aid, food and water resources are likely to become increasingly dependent on, and even an integral part of, the climate system. This is the reason for the development of international conventions and treaties designed to try to protect the climate, in particular, the Montreal Protocol which aims to reduce the substances that deplete stratospheric ozone and the Kyoto Protocol which is intended to reduce human contributions to the global greenhouse gas burden.
2. Term Paper on Meteorology and Climatology:
Meteorology is the science of weather. It is essentially an interdisciplinary science because the atmosphere, land and ocean constitute an integrated system. The three basic aspects of meteorology are observation, understanding and prediction of weather.
There are many kinds of routine meteorological observations. Some of them are made with simple instruments like the thermometer for measuring temperature or the anemometer for recording wind speed. The observing techniques have become increasingly complex in recent years and satellites have now made it possible to monitor the weather globally.
Countries around the world exchange the weather observations through fast telecommunications channels. These are plotted on weather charts and analysed by professional meteorologists at forecasting centres. Weather forecasts are then made with the help of modern computers and supercomputers.
Weather information and forecasts are of vital importance to many activities like agriculture, aviation, shipping, fisheries, tourism, defence, industrial projects, water management and disaster mitigation. Recent advances in satellite and computer technology have led to significant progress in meteorology. Our knowledge of the weather is, however, still incomplete.
Weather observations, taken on the ground or on ships, and in the upper atmosphere with the help of balloon soundings, represent the state of the atmosphere at a given time. When the data are plotted on a weather map, we get a synoptic view of the world’s weather. Hence day-to-day analysis and forecasting of weather has come to be known as synoptic meteorology. It is the study of the movement of low pressure areas, air masses, fronts, and other weather systems like depressions and tropical cyclones.
In physical meteorology we study the physical processes of the atmosphere, such as solar radiation, its absorption and scattering in the earth-atmosphere system, the radiation back to space and the transformation of solar energy into kinetic energy of air. Cloud physics and the study of rain processes are a part of physical meteorology.
In simple terms, agricultural meteorology is the application of meteorological information and data for the enhancement of crop yields and reduction of crop losses because of adverse weather. This has linkages with forestry, horticulture and animal husbandry.
The agro-meteorologist requires not only a sound knowledge of meteorology, but also of agronomy, plant physiology and plant and animal pathology, in addition to common agricultural practices. This branch of meteorology is of particular relevance to India because of the high dependence of our agriculture on monsoon rainfall which has its own vagaries.
Like agriculture, there are many human activities which are affected by weather and for which meteorologists can provide valuable inputs. Applied meteorologists use weather information and adopt the findings of theoretical research to suit a specific application; for example, design of aircraft, control of air pollution, architectural design, urban planning, exploitation of solar and wind energy, air-conditioning, development of tourism, etc.
While, Climatology is a study of the climate of a place or region on the basis of weather records accumulated over long periods of time, the average values of meteorological parameters derived from a data base that extends over several decades are called climatological normal. Different regions of the world have different characteristic climates. However, it is now recognised that climate is not static and issues such as climate change and global warming are receiving increasing attention.
Various approaches to climatology can be taken including paleoclimatology, which focuses on studying the climate over the course of the Earth’s existence by examining records of tree rings, rocks and sediment, and ice cores. Historical climatology focuses primarily on climate changes throughout history and the effects of the climate on people and events over time.
Though both climatology and meteorology are areas of study that are considered branches of similar areas of study, climatology differs from meteorology because its focus is on averages of weather and climatic conditions over a long period of time. Meteorology focuses more on current weather conditions such as humidity, air pressure, and temperatures and forecasting the short-term weather conditions to come.
Climatology and meteorology may be used in conjunction with one another, especially at weather centers that create base models to watch larger, developing and changing weather patterns such as hurricanes and tropical storms. Climatology however, focuses also on how the changes in climate occur and how those changes may affect future conditions. Climatology and other branches of atmospheric or environmental science are studied at numerous universities. A climatologist is the name given to a person who has extensively studied climatology.
Climatologists work in various locations for various organisations. In most cases, it is considered a research field and people in this field may work also in biology, zoology, or environmental fields. Climatology is important in all these fields because long-term changes in climate can affect the future of crop production, energy, animals, and even humans.
The goals of climatology are to provide a comprehensive description of the Earth’s climate over the range of geographic scales, to understand its features in terms of fundamental physical principles, and to develop models of the Earth’s climate for sensitivity studies and for the prediction of future changes that may result from natural and human causes.
3. Term Paper on the Scales in Climatology:
It is also important to emphasize that climatology involves the study of atmospheric phenomena along many different spatial scales. There is usually a direct relationship between the size of individual atmospheric phenomena and the time scale in which that phenomenon occurs. The micro-scale represents the smallest of all atmospheric scales.
Phenomena that operate along this spatial scale are smaller than 0.5 km (0.3 ml) and typically last from a few seconds to a few hours. A tiny circulation between the underside and the top of an individual leaf falls into this category, as does a tornado funnel cloud, and everything between. A larger scale is the local scale, which operates over areas between about 0.5 and 5 km (0.3 to 3 ml) – about the size of a small town. A typical thunderstorm falls into this spatial scale.
The next spatial scale is the mesoscale, which involves systems that operate over areas between about 5 and 100 km (3 to 60 ml) and typically last from a few hours to a few days. Such systems include those that you may have encountered in earlier coursework, such as the mountain/valley breeze and land/sea breeze circulation systems, clusters of interacting thunderstorms known as Mesoscale Convective Complexes (MCCs), a related phenomenon associated with cold fronts termed Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCSs), and the central region of a hurricane.
Moving toward larger phenomena, we come to the synoptic scale, a spatial scale of analysis that functions over areas between 100 and 10,000 km (60 to 6000 ml). Systems of this size typically operate over periods of days to weeks. Entire tropical cyclone systems and mid-latitude (frontal) cyclones with their trailing fronts fall into the synoptic scale. Because these phenomena are quite frequent and directly affect many people, the synoptic scale is perhaps the most studied spatial scale in the atmospheric sciences.
Finally, we can also study and view climate over an entire hemisphere or even the entire globe. This represents the largest spatial scale possible and is termed the planetary scale, as it encompasses atmospheric phenomena on the order of 10,000 to 40,000 km (6000 to 24,000 ml).
Because in general, the largest spatial systems operate over the longest time scales, it is no surprise then that planetary-scale systems operate over temporal scales that span weeks to months. Examples of planetary-scale systems include the broad wavelike flow in the upper atmosphere, and the major latitudinal pressure and wind belts that encircle the planet.
4. Term Paper on the Subfields of Climatology:
Climatology can be divided into several subfields, some of which correspond to certain scales of analysis. For instance, the study of the micro-scale processes involving interactions between the lower atmosphere and the local surface falls into the realm of boundary-layer climatology. This subfield is primarily concerned with exchanges in energy, mass, and momentum near the surface.
Physical processes can become very complex in the near-surface “boundary layer” for two reasons. First, the decreasing effect of friction from the surface upward complicates the motion of the atmosphere and involves significant transfer of momentum downward to the surface. Second, the most vigorous exchanges of energy and moisture occur in this layer because solar radiant energy striking the ground warms it greatly and rapidly compared to the atmosphere above it, and because the source of water for evaporation is at the surface.
Boundary-layer climatology may be further subdivided into topics that examine surface-atmosphere interactions in mountain/alpine regions, urban landscapes, and various vegetated land covers, and even as part of larger-scale weather/climate phenomena.
Physical climatology is related to boundary-layer climatology in that it studies energy and matter. However, it differs in that it emphasises the nature of atmospheric energy and matter themselves at climatic time scales, rather than the processes involving energy, mass, and momentum exchanges only in the near-surface atmosphere.
Some examples would include studies on the causes of lightning, atmospheric optical effects, microphysics of cloud formation, atmospheric chemistry, and air pollution. While meteorology has traditionally emphasised this type of work to a greater extent than climatology, climatologists have contributed to our understanding of these phenomena. Furthermore, the convergence of meteorology and climatology as disciplines will likely lead to more overlap in these topics of research in the future.
Hydro-climatology involves the processes (at all special scales) of interaction between the atmosphere and near-surface water in all of its forms. This subfield analyses all components of the global hydrologic cycle. Hydro-climatology interfaces especially closely with the study of other “spheres”, including the lithosphere, cryosphere, and biosphere, because water is present in all of these spheres.
Another subfield of climatology is dynamic climatology, which is primarily concerned with general atmospheric dynamics-the processes that induce atmospheric motion. Most dynamic climatologists work at the planetary scale. This differs from the subfield of synoptic climatology, which is also concerned with the processes of circulation but is more regionally focused and usually involves more practical and specific applications than those described in the more theoretical area of dynamic climatology.
According to climatologist Brent Yarnal, synoptic climatology “studies the relationships between the atmospheric circulation and the surface environment of a region”. He goes on to state that, “because synoptic climatology seeks to explain key interactions between the atmosphere and surface environment, it has great potential for basic and applied research in the environmental sciences”. Synoptic climatology may act as a keystone that links studies of atmospheric dynamics with applications in various other disciplines.
Synoptic climatology is similar in some ways to regional climatology, a description of the climate of a particular region of the surface. However, synoptic climatology necessarily involves the explanation of process, while regional climatology does not. Some view regional climatology simply as a broader version of synoptic climatology.
The study of climate may extend to times before the advent of the instrumental weather record. This subfield of climatology is termed paleoclimatology and involves the extraction of climatic data from indirect sources. This proxy evidence may include human sources such as books, journals, diaries, newspapers, and artwork to gain information about pre-instrumental climates.
However, the field primarily focuses on biological, geological, geochemical, and geophysical proxy sources, such as the analysis of tree rings, fossils, corals, pollen, ice cores, striations in rocks, and varves-sediment deposited annually on the bottoms of lakes that freeze in winter.
Bioclimatology is a very diverse subfield that includes the interaction of living things with their atmospheric environment. Agricultural climatology is the branch of bioclimatology that deals with the impact of atmospheric properties and processes on living things of economic value. Human bioclimatology is closely related to the life sciences, including biophysics and human physiology.
Applied climatology is very different in its orientation from the other subfields of climatology. While the others seek to uncover causes of various aspects of climate, applied climatology is primarily concerned with the effects of climate on other natural and social phenomena. This subfield may be further divided into a number of fields. One area of focus involves utilizing our knowledge of climate to improve the environment.
Applied climatology has moved into its golden age in service to society. In a recent book, Thompson and Perry (1997) provide a broad, all-encompassing view of the world of applied climatology. They and 27 other applied climatologists prepared chapters on wide-ranging topics like climate effects on tourism, glaciers, fisheries, and air pollution.
Hobbs (1997), in a sweeping assessment of applied climatology, points to the growing awareness of applied climatology and increasing use of climate information.
An urban climatologist studies the climate in and around cities. Urban areas are both affected by weather and climate, and exert an influence on the local scale weather and climate. The climate in and around cities and other built up areas is altered in part due to modifications humans make to the surface of the Earth during urbanisation.
Examples include using climatic data to create more efficient architectural and engineering design, generating improvements in medicine, and understanding the impact of urban landscapes on the natural and human environment. Another realm involves the possibility of modifying the physical atmosphere to suit particular human needs. One example includes the practice of cloud seeding to extract the maximum amount of precipitation from clouds in water-scarce regions.
In general, each subfield overlaps with others. We cannot fully understand processes and impacts relevant to any subfield without touching on aspects important for others and at least one other non-climatology field.
For example, an agricultural climatologist interested in the effect of windbreaks on evaporation rates in an irrigated field must understand the near-surface wind profile and turbulent transfer of moisture, along with soil and vegetation properties. Once again we see that climatology is a holistic science.
5. Term Paper on Climatic Records and Statistics:
Because climatology deals with aggregates of weather properties, statistics are used to reduce a vast array of recorded properties into one or a few understandable numbers. For instance, we could calculate the daily mean temperature – the average temperature for the entire day – for yesterday at a place through a number of methods. First, we could take all recorded temperatures throughout the day, and then divide them together by the total number of observations. As an example, we could take all hourly recordings of temperature, sum them, and divide by 24. This would yield an “average” temperature for the day.
A much simpler (but less accurate) method of calculating the daily mean temperature is actually the one that is used– A simple average is calculated for the maximum and minimum temperatures recorded for the day. This method is the one most commonly employed because in the days before computers were used to measure and record temperature, special thermometers that operated on the principle of a “bathtub ring” were able to leave a mark at the highest and lowest temperature experienced since the last time that the thermometer was reset.
Each day, human observers would be able to determine the maximum and minimum temperature for the previous 24 hours, but they would not know any of the other temperatures that occurred over that time span. Thus, for most of the period of weather records, we know only the maximum and minimum daily temperatures.
Of course, the numerical average calculated by the maximum-minimum method will differ somewhat from the one obtained by taking all hourly temperatures and dividing by 24. Even though we have computers now that can measure and record temperatures every second, we do not calculate mean daily temperatures using this more accurate method because we do not want to change the method of calculating the means in the middle of our long-term weather records.
What would happen if the temperatures began to rise abruptly at the same point in the period of record that changed the method of calculating the mean temperature? We would not be able to know whether the “change” represented an actual change in climate or was just an artefact of a change in the method of calculating the mean temperature.
But what about the average temperature? Is it actually meaningful? Let’s say that yesterday we recorded a high temperature of 32°C (90°F). This number would be used to simply describe and represent the temperature of the day for our location. But the temperature was likely to have been 27°C (80°F) only during two very short periods in the day, once during the afternoon when climbing toward the maximum, and again as temperature decreased through the late afternoon.
So the term “average temperature” is actually a rather abstract notion. Most averages or climatic “normals” are abstract notions, but the advantage from a long-term (climatic) perspective is that they provide a “mechanism” for analysing long-term changes and variability.
“Extremes” are somewhat different. Climatic extremes represent the most unusual conditions recorded for a location. For example, these may represent the highest or lowest temperatures recorded for a location. For example, these may represent the highest or lowest temperatures recorded during a particular time period. Extremes are often given on the nightly news to give a reference point to the daily recorded temperatures.
We might here that the high temperature for the day was 33°C (92°F) but that was still 5C°(8F°) lower than the “record high” of 38°C (100°F) recorded on the same date in 1963. As long as our recorded atmospheric properties are within the extreme, we know that the atmosphere is operating within the expected range of conditions.
When extremes are exceeded or nearly exceeded, then the atmosphere may be considered to be behaving in an “anomalous” manner. The frequency with which extreme events occur is also important. Specifically, if extreme events occur with increasing frequency, the environmental, agricultural, epidemiological, and economic impacts will undoubtedly increase.
Why are climatic records important? During the 1980s and 1990s, the rather elementary notion that climate changes overtime was absorbed by the general public. Before that time, many people thought that climate remained static even though weather properties varied considerably around the normals (averages). With heightened understanding of weather processes came the realisation that climate varied considerably as well.
Climatic calculations and the representation of climate for a given place over time became exceedingly important and precise. However, the problems associated with the calculation of various atmospheric properties still existed, and the methods of calculation of these properties could have far-reaching implications on such endeavours as environmental planning, hazard assessment, and governmental policy.
With today’s technology we would assume that calculating a simple average temperature for earthy for instance, would be easy. However, data bases and methodological differences complicate matters. It is generally accepted that the earth’s average annual temperature has risen by about 0.4°C (0.7°F) over the past century. Until recently, many did not accept that this temperature increase was correct because of many perceived data bases, such as changes to instrumentation, especially associated with early twentieth century recordings.
Another factor that complicated the interpretation of the observed warning was the increasingly urban location of many weather stations as urban sprawl infringed on formerly rural weather stations. Early in the twentieth century, many weather stations in the United States and elsewhere were located on the fringe of major cities. This was especially true toward the middle part of the century with the construction of major airports far from the urban core. Weather observations could be recorded at the airport in a relatively rural, undisturbed location.
As cities grew, however, these locations became swallowed up by urban areas. This instituted considerable bias into long-term records as artificial heat from urban sources, known as the urban heat island, became part of the climatic record.
We can say for now that various properties, such as the abundance of concrete that absorbs solar energy effectively, the absence of vegetation and water surfaces, and the generation of waste heat by human activities contribute to the heat island. The urban heat island provides an excellent example of how humans can modify natural climates and can complicate the calculation and analysis of “natural” climatic changes.
In addition, the long-term recordings themselves may be plagued by other problems. Consider that most weather records for the world are confined to more-developed countries and tend to be collected in, or near, population centers. Developing countries, rural areas, and especially the oceans are poorly represented in the global weather database, particularly in the earlier part of the record. Oceans comprise over 70 per cent of the planet’s surface, yet relatively few long-term weather records exist for these locations.
Most atmospheric recordings over oceans are collected from ships, and these recordings are biased by inconsistencies in the height of the ship-mounted weather station, the type of station used, the time of observation, and the composition of ship materials. Furthermore, ocean surface temperatures are derived in a variety of ways, from pulling up a bucket of ocean water and inserting a thermometer to recording the temperature of water passing through the bilge of the ship (with the heat of the ship included in the recording).
Vast tracts of ocean were largely ignored until the recent arrival of satellite monitoring and recording technology, as the representation of surface at atmospheric properties was greatly limited to shipping lanes. Even records taken with rather sophisticated weather stations may be biased and complicated to some degree by rather simple issues. Foremost among these are station moves. Moving a station even a few meters may ultimately bias long-term recordings as factors such as differing surface materials and solar exposure occur.
Also of note is a differing time in the day at which measurements were taken at different stations. And finally, systematic biases and changes in the instrumentation may cause inaccuracies in measurements. The result of these, and a host of other biases, is that considerable data “correction” is required. Both the biases and the correction methods fuel debate concerning the occurrence of actual atmospheric trends.