Monthly lowest air temperatures for Australian Antarctic stations.

INDICATOR DEFINITION
Monthly lowest temperatures obtained from observed daily minimum temperatures for Australian Antarctic stations Casey, Davis, Mawson and Macquarie Island.

TYPE OF INDICATOR
There are three types of indicators used in this report:
1.Describes the CONDITION of important elements of a system;
2.Show the extent of the major PRESSURES exerted on a system;
3.Determine RESPONSES to either condition or changes in the condition of a system.

This indicator is one of: CONDITION

RATIONALE FOR INDICATOR SELECTION
Global climate models show warming in response to increased greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide, methane etc) concentrations in the atmosphere; this is called the 'enhanced greenhouse effect'. Because of this, there is interest in observations of temperature across the globe, including Antarctica. Extensive high-quality observations from fixed locations are essential to serve as direct indicators of temperature changes and also confirm climate model output.

DESIGN AND STRATEGY FOR INDICATOR MONITORING PROGRAM
Spatial Scale: Australian Antarctic stations: Casey (lat 66 degrees 16' 54.5" S, long 110 degrees 31' 39.4" E), Davis (lat 68 degrees 34' 35.8" S, long 77 degrees 58' 02.6" E), Mawson (lat 67 degrees 36' 09.7" S, long 62 degrees 52' 25.7" E) and Macquarie Island (lat 54 degrees 37' 59.9" S, long 158 degrees 52' 59.9" E).

Temporal scale: Monthly.

Measurement Technique: Thermometry.

RESEARCH ISSUES
There is need to develop a high-quality data set from the available data, correcting erroneous data and estimating missing data. Adjustment may be necessary for changes in site location or exposure, and for changes in instrumentation or observing practices.

Some of these changes are documented in the station history files held by the Regional Observations Section. These history files are currently held as paper records, although more recent information is held electronically and there is an effort to digitise the older records.

Before the data can be used for the detection of change, a concerted effort will need to be made to identify deficiencies in the data, and then make compensations where possible. This is made more difficult by the lack of suitable comparison sites.

LINKS TO OTHER INDICATORS
SOE Indicators 1 - Monthly mean air temperatures for Australian Antarctic stations
SOE Indicators 2 - Monthly highest air temperatures for Australian Antarctic stations
SOE Indicators 4 - Monthly mean of daily radiosonde temperatures at the 100hPa level (deg C)
SOE Indicators 5 - Monthly mean of daily radiosonde temperatures at the 500hPa level (deg C)
SOE Indicators 6 - Daily mean 10m Firn Temperatures at AWS sites in the AAT (deg C)
SOE Indicators 8 - Monthly mean of three-hourly mean sea level pressures (hPa)
SOE Indicators 11 - Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gas species
SOE Indicators 14 - Midwinter atmospheric temperature at altitude 87km
SOE Indicators 16 - Extent of summer surface glacial melt (sq km)
SOE Indicators 42 - Antarctic sea ice extent and concentration
SOE Indicators 43 - Fast ice thickness at Davis and Mawson
SOE Indicators 56 - Monthly fuel usage of the generator sets and boilers
SOE Indicators 59 - Monthly electricity usage

Note - Station codes in the data are as follows:
300000 - Davis
300001 - Mawson
300004 - Macquarie Island
300017 - Casey

The fields in this dataset are:
Temperature
Lowest Air Temperature
Year
Month
Station
Station Code
Field
Value
Enough Observations
Number Observations