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Published Online September 30, 2004
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1104416

Perspectives

Submitted on August 27, 2004
Accepted on September 21, 2004

The Real Color of Climate Change?

Timothy J. Osborn 1* and Keith R. Briffa 1*

1 Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Timothy J. Osborn , E-mail: t.osborn{at}uea.ac.uk
Keith R. Briffa , E-mail: k.briffa{at}uea.ac.uk

Reconstructions of past temperatures often use a combination of climate "proxies" such as ice cores and tree rings and the instrumental temperature record. How accurate are these reconstructions over time scales of decades to centuries? In their Perspective, Osborn and Briffa highlight the report of von Storch et al., who have simulated the errors associated with climate proxies over these longer time scales. Because of systematic errors that are not taken into account in such reconstructions, the amplitude of the Northern Hemisphere temperature fluctuations over the last millennium may have been underestimated.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
High-resolution palaeoclimatology of the last millennium: a review of current status and future prospects.
P.D. Jones, K.R. Briffa, T.J. Osborn, J.M. Lough, T.D. van Ommen, B.M. Vinther, J. Luterbacher, E.R. Wahl, F.W. Zwiers, M.E. Mann, et al. (2009)
The Holocene 19, 3-49
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)