UPPER-AIR TEMPERATURE TRENDS OVER THE GLOBE, 1958-1989

New time series of the hemispheric and global mean temperature anomali es in the troposphere and lower stratosphere are presented for the per iod May 1958 through December 1989. The statistics are based on object ive monthly analyses of all available daily soundings from the global rawinsonde network (approximately 700-800 stations). The results are c ompared with Angell's earlier statistics based on a subset of 63 stati ons. Excellent agreement is found with these earlier results as well a s with an 11-year set of satellite-derived microwave sounding unit dat a. These detailed comparisons support the conclusion that the rawinson de network can provide reliable estimates of the actual interseasonal hemispheric-scale temperature changes that have occurred between the e arth's surface and about 20 km (50 mb) height since the 1950s.