Open Data: New Database Holds Earth’s 2,000 Year Climate History
From Victoria University (Melbourne, Australia):
The database has been released today in the Scientific Data [a Nature journal] by a large international team of scientists, including Associate Professor Nancy Bertler.
Associate Professor Bertler says the database—which expands on a version released in 2013—provides a rigorously assessed compilation of temperature reconstructions for the past 2,000 years.
“The database gathers information on past temperature based on evidence from a number of sources including tree rings, corals, glacier ice, and marine and lake sediments.
“It’s the most comprehensive collection of information on global temperature change ever, and has taken over three years to pull together.”
This database is important because it provides much-needed information on regional temperature patterns and trends, says Associate Professor Bertler.
The database gathers close to 700 records from 648 locations, compiled by 98 regional experts from 22 countries. It was coordinated by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) network of international paleoclimate scientists.
PAGES has released the database as an open resource, allowing anyone to download and use the data.
Direct to Article and Data: “A Global Multiproxy Database For Temperature Reconstructions of the Common Era” (via Science Data)
Filed under: Data Files, News
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.