‘Global and terrestrial precipitation: a comparative assessment of existing climatologies’: a reply
✍ Scribed by Legates, David R.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 51 KB
- Volume
- 17
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0899-8418
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
In his comment on my paper, Whetton argues that precipitation estimates for the Southern Ocean (high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere) in the Legates and Willmott climatology are implausible owing to its large seasonality. Justi®cation for this assertion includes comparisons with island observations and methodological limitations he feels exist in the Legates and Willmott climatology. In this reply, the methodology used by Legates and Willmott is examined carefully and Whetton's concerns about it are shown to be his misinterpretation of the intent of the air temperature correction. Our (Whetton's and my) arguments serve to illustrate that observational evidence of precipitation over the ocean expanse of the Southern Hemisphere is a major limiting factor of all observation-based climatologies.