Twas the best of times for proxy reconstructions . .
April 13, 2020An interesting thing about proxy reconstructions is that it was only with the end of the last century that they could be done, some trivial, some not much talked about.
Why well take a look at the latest, Pages 2K
Why well take a look at the latest, Pages 2K
and the first multi-proxy reconstruction, MBH 98
The first trivial reason is that it was only after 1850 or so that there were enough weather stations with reliable instrumentation and procedures to create globally reliable instrumental temperature records. BEST tried to push the global instrumental temperature records back in time
They attribute the large negative deviations to volcanoes, which from left to right before 1900 would be Grimsvötn(1785), Tambora (1815), Cosiqüina(1835), Krakatoa (1883) with the 1808 mystery eruption.
The second trivial reason is obviously the availability of proxy records which overlap the instrumental ones. Even tho they can be chained there were not so many early on.
The third reason which is the one that interests Eli (and maybe some bunnies) is that it has only been in the 20th century that there was a large enough change in global temperatures to allow a useful calibration. The changes before 1800 were just too damn small to allow a useful calibration of the changes in the proxys.
The second trivial reason is obviously the availability of proxy records which overlap the instrumental ones. Even tho they can be chained there were not so many early on.
The third reason which is the one that interests Eli (and maybe some bunnies) is that it has only been in the 20th century that there was a large enough change in global temperatures to allow a useful calibration. The changes before 1800 were just too damn small to allow a useful calibration of the changes in the proxys.
