The eruption of Mount Tambora (Indonesia) in April 1815 is the largest documented volcanic eruption in history. It is associated with a large global cooling during the following year, felt particularly in parts of Europe and North America, where the year 1816 became known as the "year without a summer". This paper describes an effort made to collect surface meteorological observations from the early instrumental period, with a focus on the years of and immediately following the eruption (1815-1817). Although the collection aimed in particular at pressure observations, correspondent temperature observations were also recovered. Some of the series had already been described in the literature, but a large part of the data, recently digitised from original weather diaries and contemporary magazines and newspapers, is presented here for the first time. The collection puts together more than 50 sub-daily series from land observatories in Europe and North America and from ships in the tropics. The pressure observations have been corrected for temperature and gravity and reduced to mean sea level. Moreover, an additional statistical correction was applied to take into account common error sources in mercury barometers. To assess the reliability of the corrected data set, the variance in the pressure observations is compared with modern climatologies, and single observations are used for synoptic analyses of three case studies in Europe. All raw observations will be made available to the scientific community in the International Surface Pressure Databank.

A collection of sub-daily pressure and temperature observations for the early instrumental period with a focus on the "year without a summer" 1816 / Y. Brugnara, R. Auchmann, S. Brönnimann, R.J. Allan, I. Auer, M. Barriendos, H. Bergström, J. Bhend, R. Brázdil, G.P. Compo, R.C. Cornes, F. Dominguez Castro, A.F.V. Van Engelen, J. Filipiak, J. Holopainen, S. Jourdain, M. Kunz, J. Luterbacher, M. Maugeri, L. Mercalli, A. Moberg, C.J. Mock, G. Pichard, L. Åezníčková, G. Van Der Schrier, V. Slonosky, Z. Ustrnul, M.A. Valente, A. Wypych, X. Yin. - In: CLIMATE OF THE PAST. - ISSN 1814-9324. - 11:8(2015), pp. 1027-1047. [10.5194/cp-11-1027-2015]

A collection of sub-daily pressure and temperature observations for the early instrumental period with a focus on the "year without a summer" 1816

M. Maugeri;
2015

Abstract

The eruption of Mount Tambora (Indonesia) in April 1815 is the largest documented volcanic eruption in history. It is associated with a large global cooling during the following year, felt particularly in parts of Europe and North America, where the year 1816 became known as the "year without a summer". This paper describes an effort made to collect surface meteorological observations from the early instrumental period, with a focus on the years of and immediately following the eruption (1815-1817). Although the collection aimed in particular at pressure observations, correspondent temperature observations were also recovered. Some of the series had already been described in the literature, but a large part of the data, recently digitised from original weather diaries and contemporary magazines and newspapers, is presented here for the first time. The collection puts together more than 50 sub-daily series from land observatories in Europe and North America and from ships in the tropics. The pressure observations have been corrected for temperature and gravity and reduced to mean sea level. Moreover, an additional statistical correction was applied to take into account common error sources in mercury barometers. To assess the reliability of the corrected data set, the variance in the pressure observations is compared with modern climatologies, and single observations are used for synoptic analyses of three case studies in Europe. All raw observations will be made available to the scientific community in the International Surface Pressure Databank.
Paleontology; Stratigraphy; Global and Planetary Change
Settore FIS/06 - Fisica per il Sistema Terra e Il Mezzo Circumterrestre
2015
Article (author)
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
A69_CP_2015_11_1027.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Publisher's version/PDF
Dimensione 10.04 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
10.04 MB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/339097
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 36
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 33
social impact