Purpose of Analysis and Reliability Problems

Abstract

The region under consideration in this Atlas is Europe. This is due to the satisfactory time series data availability on a secular time scale, in contrast to nearly all other regions in the world. The purpose is to describe as exactly as possible the observed long-term climate trends in this region including their regional peculiarities with a fair regional dissolution, for all months, seasons and the year. Due to the fluctuative behaviour of climate which is not of interest if the consideration is focussed on long-term trends (eliminating relatively short-term fluctuations) and some spectral characteristics (long-term residuum, see again Figure 1.1, time and frequency domain) it seems to be reasonable to look at time intervals of at least 100 yr. As far as the causal aspect is concerned, note that also the enhanced ‘greenhouse effect’ (already mentioned in Chapter 1) acts on this time scale and this may be also true for some other competitive natural forcings of climate.