ACTION COST-ES0601

Please, download the Monthly Benchmark Dataset .

Please, check our literature review on homogenisation .

Long instrumental climate records are the basis of climate research. However, these series are usually affected by inhomogeneities (artificial shifts), due to changes in the measurement conditions (relocations, instrumentation and others).As the artificial shifts often have the same magnitude as the climate signal, such as long-term variations, trends or cycles, a direct analysis of the raw data series can lead to wrong conclusions about climate change.

In order to deal with this crucial problem many statistical homogenisation procedures have been developed for detection and  correction of these inhomogeneities. At present only a limited number of publications intercompare some common methods and their impact on the climate record.The large number of different methods could be seen as a weakness in the science and is a challenge for the climatological  community to address.

There is therefore a need for a coordinated European initiative in order to produce standard methods designed to facilitate such comparisons and promote the most efficient methods of homogenisation.

The Action's main objective is to achieve a general method for homogenising climate and environmental datasets.The method will be derived from the most adapted statistical procedures for detection and correction of varying parameters at different space and time scales.

See Memorandum of Understanding for more information.

The action is structured in 5 working groups:

• WG1- Inventory of existing homogenisation methods and benchmark dataset preparation.
• WG2- Comparison and evaluation of existing detection methods and correction methods for annual to monthly data.
• WG4- Methods for correction of daily data.
• WG5- Presentation and release of the new common method.