Temperature trends at the Mauna Loa observatory, Hawaii

Abstract

Observations at the Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, established the systematic increase of anthropogenic CO₂ in the atmosphere. For the same reasons that this site provides excellent globally averaged CO₂ data, it may provide temperature data with global significance. Here, we examine hourly temperature records, averaged annually for 1977–2006, to determine linear trends as a function of time of day. For night-time data (22:00 to 06:00 LST (local standard time)) there is a near-uniform warming of 0.040 °C yr⁻¹. During the day, the linear trend shows a slight cooling of −0.014 °C yr⁻¹ at 12:00 LST (noon). Overall, at Mauna Loa Observatory, there is a mean warming trend of 0.021 °C yr⁻¹. The dominance of night-time warming results in a relatively large annual decrease in the diurnal temperature range (DTR) of −0.050 °C yr⁻¹ over the period 1977–2006. These trends are consistent with the observed increases in the concentrations of CO₂ and its role as a greenhouse gas (demonstrated here by first-order radiative forcing calculations), and indicate the possible relevance of the Mauna Loa temperature measurements to global warming.