Communications of the ACM
Weather History Time Machine
A new software package does the statistical work of reconstructing and mapping precipitation records for researchers.
Credit: Daniel Cardle
San Diego State University (SDSU) researchers have developed spectral optimal gridding of precipitation (SOGP) 1.0, software that democratizes the analysis of precipitation statistical models.
"In the past, only a couple dozen scientists could do these reconstructions," says SDSU professor Samuel Shen. "Now, anybody can play with this user-friendly software, use it to inform their research, and develop new models and hypotheses. This new tool brings historical precipitation reconstruction from a 'rocket science' to a 'toy science.'"
The researchers say SOGP 1.0 is a user-friendly, technologically advanced program that does the statistical work for researchers. SOGP 1.0, which is based on the MATLAB programming language, reconstructs precipitation records for the entire globe between the years 1900 and 2011 and enables researchers to zoom in on specific regions and timeframes. For example, Shen cites a region in the Pacific Ocean that sometimes glows bright red on the computer model, signaling extreme dryness, and sometimes dark blue, indicating an atypically wet year. Shen says when either of these climate events occur, it is nearly certain that North American weather will respond to these patterns.
Shen hopes SOGP 1.0's ease of use will encourage climate scientists to incorporate historical data into their own models, improving future predictions of climate change.
From UCSD News (CA)
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