Discrepancies between Different Northern Hemisphere Summer Atmospheric Data Products

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Northern Hemisphere summer (July–August) data from the NCEP–NCAR and ECMWF 40-yr Re-Analysis (ERA-40) reanalyses are compared with each other and with Trenberth's sea level pressure (SLP) dataset. Discrepancies in SLP and 500 hPa are mostly confined to a band connecting North Africa and Asia. In the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis, there is a negative offset in SLP over North Africa and Asia prior to the late 1960s, together with a similar problem in 500-hPa height, and in Trenberth's data there is a negative offset in SLP over Asia prior to the early 1990s. Both these offsets magnify the linear trend from 1958 to 2002 over North Africa and Asia in the NCEP–NCAR and Trenberth datasets. On the other hand, the interannual variability in the three datasets is highly correlated during the periods between these offsets. Compared to SLP and 500-hPa height, there is a more extensive area of discrepancy in 2-m temperature that extends eastward from North Africa across the subtropics into the Pacific, with an additi... Abstract Northern Hemisphere summer (July–August) data from the NCEP–NCAR and ECMWF 40-yr Re-Analysis (ERA-40) reanalyses are compared with each other and with Trenberth's sea level pressure (SLP) dataset. Discrepancies in SLP and 500 hPa are mostly confined to a band connecting North Africa and Asia. In the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis, there is a negative offset in SLP over North Africa and Asia prior to the late 1960s, together with a similar problem in 500-hPa height, and in Trenberth's data there is a negative offset in SLP over Asia prior to the early 1990s. Both these offsets magnify the linear trend from 1958 to 2002 over North Africa and Asia in the NCEP–NCAR and Trenberth datasets. On the other hand, the interannual variability in the three datasets is highly correlated during the periods between these offsets. Compared to SLP and 500-hPa height, there is a more extensive area of discrepancy in 2-m temperature that extends eastward from North Africa across the subtropics into the Pacific, with an additi...