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Extremes in a Changing Climate pp 347–361Cite as

Global Data Sets for Analysis of Climate Extremes

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Part of the book series: Water Science and Technology Library ((WSTL,volume 65))

Abstract

Anthropogenic forced climate change is expected to result in changes in both the mean climate state and climate extremes. Documenting changes in extremes, such as drought, heavy precipitation, heat waves or tropical storms requires long-term observations of climate at sufficiently high temporal resolution to identify individual extreme events and is spatially complete enough to use at both global and regional scales. This chapter discusses various data sets that are suitable for examining changes in extremes in the observed record. Issues discussed include problems with data quality, such as data homogeneity and data availability. Data sets discussed include global sets for monthly and daily temperature and precipitation, tropical cyclones, and reanalyses. In addition, a brief section on climate observing networks is included outlining new networks in the U.S. and Canada that have been designed to alleviate many of the problems discussed here.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Climatic Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Asheville, NC, USA

    David R. Easterling

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  1. David R. Easterling
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Correspondence to David R. Easterling .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Dept. of Civil and Env. Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Engineering Gateway E/4130, Irvine, 92697, California, USA

    Amir AghaKouchak

  2. NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, Patton Avenue 151, Asheville, 28801-5001, North Carolina, USA

    David Easterling

  3. , Dept. of Civil and Env. Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Engineering Gateway E/4130, Irvine, 92697, California, USA

    Kuolin Hsu

  4. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt Road 8800, Greenbelt, 20771, USA

    Siegfried Schubert

  5. , Dept. Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Engineering Gateway E/4130, Irvine, 92697, California, USA

    Soroosh Sorooshian

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Easterling, D.R. (2013). Global Data Sets for Analysis of Climate Extremes. In: AghaKouchak, A., Easterling, D., Hsu, K., Schubert, S., Sorooshian, S. (eds) Extremes in a Changing Climate. Water Science and Technology Library, vol 65. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4479-0_12

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