An overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network monthly mean temperature data set, version 3
Abstract
[1] Since the early 1990s the Global Historical Climatology Network-Monthly (GHCN-M) data set has been an internationally recognized source of data for the study of observed variability and change in land surface temperature. It provides monthly mean temperature data for 7280 stations from 226 countries and territories, ongoing monthly updates of more than 2000 stations to support monitoring of current and evolving climate conditions, and homogeneity adjustments to remove non-climatic influences that can bias the observed temperature record. The release of version 3 monthly mean temperature data marks the first major revision to this data set in over ten years. It introduces a number of improvements and changes that include consolidating “duplicate” series, updating records from recent decades, and the use of new approaches to homogenization and quality assurance. Although the underlying structure of the data set is significantly different than version 2, conclusions regarding the rate of warming in global land surface temperature are largely unchanged.
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A similar finding of more negative shifts was reported for GHCNm version 3.
“A similar finding was also reported for GHCNm, version 3 (Lawrimore et al. 2011).”
From The Global Historical Climatology Network Monthly Temperature Dataset, Version 4 (2018) · cites this paper as Lawrimore et al. 2011
The same QC checks described in Lawrimore et al. (2011) for GHCNm v3 are applied to the v4 station data.
“The same checks described in Lawrimore et al. (2011) for GHCNm v3 are applied to the v4 station data.”
From The Global Historical Climatology Network Monthly Temperature Dataset, Version 4 (2018) · cites this paper as Lawrimore et al. 2011
The quality-control process was designed so that each check has a low false-positive rate, that is, a low probability that valid observations are flagged as errors according to the evaluation approach outlined in Durre et al. (2008).
“As described in Lawrimore et al. (2011), the quality-control process was designed so that each check has a low false-positive rate, that is, a low probability that valid observations are flagged as errors according to the evaluation approach outlined in Durre et al. (2008).”
From The Global Historical Climatology Network Monthly Temperature Dataset, Version 4 (2018) · cites this paper as Lawrimore et al. 2011
Undetected shifts can lead to errors in computing regional averages when they do not have an expected mean of zero, which is evidently the case for GHCN-monthly data.
“They can also lead to errors in computing regional averages when they do not have an expected mean of zero, which is evidently the case for GHCN-monthly data (Fig. 3; see also Lawrimore et al. 2011).”
From The Global Historical Climatology Network Monthly Temperature Dataset, Version 4 (2018) · cites this paper as Lawrimore et al. 2011
Cites
Global surface temperature change
Hansen, J., Ruedy, R., Sato, M., & Lo, K. (2010) · Reviews of Geophysics · doi:10.1029/2010rg000345 · Cited by 3,081 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Others have also identified this inhomogeneity [Hansen et al., 2010].”
BackgroundStrategies for Evaluating Quality Assurance Procedures
Durre, I., Menne, M. J., & Vose, R. S. (2008) · Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology · doi:10.1175/2007jamc1706.1 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Self-citationThorne, P. W., Willett, K. M., Allan, R. J., Bojinski, S., Christy, J. R., Fox, N., Gilbert, S., Jolliffe, I., Kennedy, J. J., Kent, E., et al. (2011) · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society · doi:10.1175/2011bams3124.1 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
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An Overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network-Daily Database
Menne, M. J., Durre, I., Vose, R. S., Gleason, B. E., & Houston, T. G. (2012) · Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology · doi:10.1175/jtech-d-11-00103.1 · Cited by 1,993 · see citing works
Self-citationMorice, C. P., Kennedy, J. J., Rayner, N. A., & Jones, P. D. (2012) · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres · doi:10.1029/2011jd017187 · Cited by 1,657 · see citing works
The Global Historical Climatology Network Monthly Temperature Dataset, Version 4
Menne, M. J., Williams, C. N., Gleason, B. E., Rennie, J. J., & Lawrimore, J. H. (2018) · Journal of Climate · doi:10.1175/jcli-d-18-0094.1 · Cited by 281 · see citing works
“Version 2 processing remained essentially unchanged until the release of version 3 in 2011, which included improvements to quality-control and homogenization methods (Lawrimore et al. 2011).”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialEisen, L., Monaghan, A. J., Lozano-Fuentes, S., Steinhoff, D. F., Hayden, M. H., & Bieringer, P. E. (2014) · Journal of Medical Entomology · doi:10.1603/me13214 · Cited by 176 · see citing works
Rennie, J. J., Lawrimore, J. H., Gleason, B. E., Thorne, P. W., Morice, C. P., Menne, M. J., Williams, C. N., de Almeida, W. G., Christy, J. R., Flannery, M., et al. (2014) · Geoscience Data Journal · doi:10.1002/gdj3.8 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
Self-citationBliefernicht, J., Salack, S., Waongo, M., Annor, T., Laux, P., & Kunstmann, H. (2022) · International Journal of Climatology · doi:10.1002/joc.7467 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Cater, B., & Lew, B. (2018) · Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique · doi:10.1111/caje.12357 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Lawrimore, J. H., Menne, M. J., Gleason, B. E., Williams, C. N., Wuertz, D. B., Vose, R. S., & Rennie, J.
- Affiliations
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Geophysical Research
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2011-10-15
- Volume
- 116
- Issue
- D19
- ISSN
- 0148-0227 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1970940206
- Cited by
- 598
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 57 · 2020: 45 · 2019: 68 · 2018: 57 · 2017: 56 · 2016: 51 · 2015: 57 · 2014: 46 · 2013: 36 · 2012: 23
- FWCI
- 29.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Urban Heat Island Mitigation
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate Change and Environmental Impact
- Keywords
- Global Historical Climatology Network, land surface temperature, mean monthly temperature, temperature homogenization, data quality assurance
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