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Regular Research Article 26 Nov 2013
Received: 31 Jul 2013 – Revised: 28 Oct 2013 – Accepted: 03 Nov 2013 – Published: 26 Nov 2013 Abstract. An accurate and comprehensive characterization of surface air temperature
(SAT) variability is important for numerous purposes: studies on climate and
climate change, the evaluation of climate model outputs, research on the
impacts of changes in variability, etc. In this paper, SAT variability is
considered from two different points of view: a measure of dispersion
referring to the values in the time series, but ignoring their temporal
sequence (the standard deviation); and a measure of persistence, for which
the succession of the values in the time series is important (the exponent
H established with Haar wavelet analysis). This paper uses daily minimum and
maximum temperature records from Canadian stations in the Atlantic region
and finds that: (i) SAT pattern variability can be assessed with the help of
distinct methods applied together, in ways that might not be possible with
any of the applied methods used separately; (ii) SAT pattern variability
changes significantly over time; (iii) oscillations on scales from years to
decades in both standard deviation S and the H exponent take place; (iv) the
temporal change in SAT variability is reflected differently by the two
applied methods: general statements concerning increases or decreases in
variability should not be made without specifying the applied measure of
variability.
Citation: Suteanu, C.: Characterizing change in the variability of surface air temperature records: a comparative approach, Pattern Recogn. Phys., 1, 135-142, doi:10.5194/prp-1-135-2013, 2013.
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