PAGES2k Consortium, an international community of climate scientists, has published the most comprehensive set of “temperature reconstructions” ever assembled in a publicly accessible database. A temperature reconstruction is an estimate of historical surface temperatures based on measurements collected from proxies such as tree rings, corals, glacier ice, and sediments. The crowd-sourced database of 692 reconstructions compiles data from paleoclimate scientists covering 648 locations around the world and dating back 2,000 years. Climate scientists can use the data to understand historical patterns and trends in temperature changes over time in different regions and to create more accurate climate change models and projections.
Image: Robert A. Rhode.
