Credits

This site is just a thin layer over the far greater work of others...

Data sources

The data this site use comes from the following organisations:

HADCRUT3, CRUTEM3 Global Temperature

Source:Climatic Research Unit, UEA; Met Office Hadley Centre
Data URL:http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/
Reference:P. Brohan, J.J. Kennedy, I. Harris, S.F.B. Tett and P.D. Jones, Uncertainty estimates in regional and global observed temperature changes: a new dataset from 1850. J. Geophys. Res, 111, D12106, doi:10.1029/2005JD006548.

CRUTEM4 Global Temperature

Source:Climatic Research Unit, UEA; Met Office Hadley Centre
Data URL:http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/
Reference:Jones, P.D., Lister, D.H., Osborn, T.J., Harpham, C., Salmon, M. and Morice, C.P., 2012: Hemispheric and large-scale land surface air temperature variations: an extensive revision and an update to 2010. J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2011JD017139.

HADCRUT4 Global Temperature

Source:Met Office Hadley Centre
Data URL:http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcrut4/data/current/download.html
Reference:Morice, C. P., J. J. Kennedy, N. A. Rayner, and P. D. Jones (2012), Quantifying uncertainties in global and regional temperature change using an ensemble of observational estimates: The HadCRUT4 dataset, J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2011JD017187, in press.

HADSST2 Sea Surface Temperature

Source:Climatic Research Unit, UEA; Met Office Hadley Centre
Data URL:http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/
Reference:Rayner, N.A., P.Brohan, D.E.Parker, C.K.Folland, J.J.Kennedy, M.Vanicek, T.Ansell and S.F.B.Tett 2006: Improved analyses of changes and uncertainties in sea surface temperature measured in situ since the mid-nineteenth century: the HadSST2 data set. Journal of Climate. 19(3) pp. 446-469

GISTEMP Global Temperature

Source:NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Data URL:http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/
Reference:See: GISTEMP references page

UAH NSSTC Lower troposphere temperature

Source:UAH National Space Science and Technology Center
Data URL:http://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/public/msu/t2lt/
Reference:John Christy, NSSTC, University of Alabama in Huntsville (formal reference unknown)

RSS Lower troposphere temperature

Source:Remote Sensing Systems
Data URL:http://www.ssmi.com/msu/msu_data_description.html
Reference:MSU data are produced by Remote Sensing Systems and sponsored by the NOAA Climate and Global Change Program. Data are available at www.remss.com.

Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST)

Source:Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project
Data URL:http://www.berkeleyearth.org/downloads/analysis-data.zip (file Full_Database_Average_complete.txt)
Reference:The preliminary version of the complete Berkeley Earth dataset..

SIDC Sunspot Number (SSN)

Source:Solar Influences Data Analysis Center (SIDC), Royal Observatory of Belgium
Data URL:http://sidc.oma.be/sunspot-data/
Reference:SIDC-team, World Data Center for the Sunspot Index, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Monthly Report on the International Sunspot Number, online catalogue of the sunspot index

PMOD Composite Total Solar Irradiance (TSI)

Source:Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos, World Radiation Center
Data URL:ftp://ftp.pmodwrc.ch/pub/data/irradiance/composite/
Reference:C. Fröhlich, 2006, "Solar Irradiance Variability Since 1978: Revision of the {PMOD} Composite During Solar Cycle 21", Space Science Rev. in press 2006

NOAA ESRL CO2 at Mauna Loa

Source:NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
Data URL:http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
Reference:Dr. Pieter Tans, NOAA/ESRL

JISAO PDO Index

Source:University of Washington Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Ocean
Data URL:http://jisao.washington.edu/pdo
Reference:Zhang, Y., J.M. Wallace, D.S. Battisti, 1997: ENSO-like interdecadal variability: 1900-93. J. Climate, 10, 1004-1020

ESRL AMO Index

Source:NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
Data URL:http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/timeseries/AMO/
Reference:Enfield, D.B., A.M. Mestas-Nunez, and P.J. Trimble, 2001: The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and its relationship to rainfall and river flows in the continental U.S., Geophys. Res. Lett., 28: 2077-2080.

NSIDC Sea Ice Index

Source:National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder
Data URL:ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135
Reference:Fetterer, F., K. Knowles, W. Meier, and M. Savoie. 2002, updated 2008. Sea Ice Index. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center

Note: WoodForTrees processes the monthly estimated total coverage data (not the raw area) at the above URL, combining them into a continuous monthly series and linearly interpolating the missing values at 1987.12 and 1988.1.

Software

The site is entirely built from open-source software:

Data analyser:analyse
Graph plotter:Gnuplot
Audio encoder:TwoLAME
Script language:PHP
Web server:Apache
C++ toolchain:GCC
Automatic data fetch:Wget
Operating system:Debian GNU/Linux

Referencing this site

I am not an academic researcher and hence have no need for formal references. However, if you've found this site useful, an informal 'mention in dispatches' and a Web link wouldn't go amiss.

This cuts both ways, however: The algorithms used on this site have not been formally peer reviewed and hence should not be used unverified for academic publication (and certainly not for policy- making!). This site is only intended to help find interesting directions for further research to be carried out more formally.