RECENT WARMING IN GLOBAL TEMPERATURE SERIES

Global mean temperature can be estimated from surface and from troposp heric measurements. Much has been written recently concerning trends i n the various time series over short (10-15 year) periods. This paper compares the surface, 850-300 mb and the microwave sounding unit (MSU) channel 2R measurements on the 'global' scale. The various series sho w marked differences in their trends over the 1979-93 period with the surface data showing significant warming and the troposphere no change . The difference can be explained by the shortness of the record and b y the transitory nature of volcanic and El Nino/Southern Oscillation e ffects on global temperatures. Correcting or factoring out these influ ences and extending the period of analysis leads to a greater conformi ty in the results, which show temperatures have risen by about 0.1-deg rees-C per decade since 1958.