Climate reconstruction using ‘Pseudoproxies’

2002/05/15 by Michael Mann, Scott Rutherford · 7 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Mathematics · #Tree-ring climate responses #Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics #Climate variability and models #Proxy (statistics) #Paleoclimatology #Environmental science #Sampling (signal processing) #Climatology #Noise (video) #Climate change #Meteorology #Geology #Computer science #Statistics #Mathematics #Geography #Artificial intelligence

paper · pdf · doi:10.1029/2001gl014554

openalex publication_date 2002/05/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

We test the performance of proxy‐based climate field reconstruction methods using sets of synthetic proxy climate indicators. ‘Pseudoproxies’ are constructed through the degradation of instrumental surface temperature data by additive noise with variable statistical properties. Experiments are performed using pseudoproxy networks of varying spatial and seasonal representation and with varying noise attributes. Implications for sampling strategies for improved paleoclimate reconstructions are discussed.

Citations

• Global-scale temperature patterns and climate forcing over the past six centuries
• Robust estimation of background noise and signal detection in climatic time series
• Multivariate Techniques for Specifying Tree-Growth and Climate Relationships and for Reconstructing Anomalies in Paleoclimate
• High-resolution palaeoclimatic records for the last millennium: interpretation, integration and comparison with General Circulation Model control-run temperatures
• Arctic Environmental Change of the Last Four Centuries
• Northern hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: Inferences, uncertainties, and limitations
• 'Little Ice Age' summer temperature variations: their nature and relevance to recent global warming trends

Cited by

• Highly variable Northern Hemisphere temperatures reconstructed from low- and high-resolution proxy data
• Proxy-based reconstructions of hemispheric and global surface temperature variations over the past two millennia
• Proxy-Based Northern Hemisphere Surface Temperature Reconstructions: Sensitivity to Method, Predictor Network, Target Season, and Target Domain
• Reconstruction of the Extratropical NH Mean Temperature over the Last Millennium with a Method that Preserves Low-Frequency Variability
• High-resolution palaeoclimatology of the last millennium: a review of current status and future prospects
• Robustness of the Mann, Bradley, Hughes reconstruction of Northern Hemisphere surface temperatures: Examination of criticisms based on the nature and processing of proxy climate evidence
• Hockey stick graph (global temperature) [wikipedia]