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Originally published in Science Express on 3 March 2005
Science 29 April 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5722, pp. 675 - 677
DOI: 10.1126/science.1107046
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Extracting a Climate Signal from 169 Glacier Records

J. Oerlemans

I constructed a temperature history for different parts of the world from 169 glacier length records. Using a first-order theory of glacier dynamics, I related changes in glacier length to changes in temperature. The derived temperature histories are fully independent of proxy and instrumental data used in earlier reconstructions. Moderate global warming started in the middle of the 19th century. The reconstructed warming in the first half of the 20th century is 0.5 kelvin. This warming was notably coherent over the globe. The warming signals from glaciers at low and high elevations appear to be very similar.

Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, Netherlands.

E-mail: j.oerlemans{at}phys.uu.nl

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