Homogenisation Creating Remodelled Temperature Series for Australia (archived)

The list below contains the 112 Australian Climate Observations Reference Network – Surface Air Temperature (ACORN-SAT) locations with the associated Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) station ID numbers. Each entry in the list contains links to two figures in which minimum and maximum temperature data are displayed.

The raw and adjusted series are charted together. In this way it is possible to get some understanding of the extent of the remodelling.

#	Site name	BoM ID	Tmin figure	Tmax figure
1	Adelaide	023090	Tmin	Tmax
2	Albany	009741	Tmin	Tmax
3	Alice Springs	015590	Tmin	Tmax
4	Amberley	040004	Tmin	Tmax
5	Barcaldine	036007	Tmin	Tmax
6	Bathurst	063005	Tmin	Tmax
7	Birdsville	038026	Tmin	Tmax
8	Boulia	038003	Tmin	Tmax
9	Bourke	048245	Tmin	Tmax
10	Bridgetown	009510	Tmin	Tmax
11	Brisbane Airport	040842	Tmin	Tmax
12	Broome Airport	003003	Tmin	Tmax
13	Bundaberg	039128	Tmin	Tmax
14	Burketown	029077	Tmin	Tmax
15	Butlers Gorge	096003	Tmin	Tmax
16	Cabramurra	072161	Tmin	Tmax
17	Cairns	031011	Tmin	Tmax
18	Camooweal	037010	Tmin	Tmax
19	Canberra	070351	Tmin	Tmax
20	Cape Borda	022823	Tmin	Tmax
21	Cape Bruny Lighthouse	094010	Tmin	Tmax
22	Cape Leeuwin	009518	Tmin	Tmax
23	Cape Moreton	040043	Tmin	Tmax
24	Cape Otway Lighthouse	090015	Tmin	Tmax
25	Carnarvon	006011	Tmin	Tmax
26	Ceduna	018012	Tmin	Tmax
27	Charleville	044021	Tmin	Tmax
28	Charters Towers	034084	Tmin	Tmax
29	Cobar	048027	Tmin	Tmax
30	Coffs Harbour	059040	Tmin	Tmax
31	Cunderdin	010286	Tmin	Tmax
32	Dalwallinu	008039	Tmin	Tmax
33	Darwin	014015	Tmin	Tmax
34	Deniliquin	074258	Tmin	Tmax
35	Dubbo	065070	Tmin	Tmax
36	Esperance	009789	Tmin	Tmax
37	Eucla	011003	Tmin	Tmax
38	Forrest	011052	Tmin	Tmax
39	Gabo Island	084016	Tmin	Tmax
40	Gayndah	039066	Tmin	Tmax
41	Georgetown	030124	Tmin	Tmax
42	Geraldton	008051	Tmin	Tmax
43	Giles	013017	Tmin	Tmax
44	Grove	094220	Tmin	Tmax
45	Gunnedah	055024	Tmin	Tmax
46	Halls Creek	002012	Tmin	Tmax
47	Hobart	094029	Tmin	Tmax
48	Horn Island	027058	Tmin	Tmax
49	Inverell	056242	Tmin	Tmax
50	Kalgoorlie-Boulder	012038	Tmin	Tmax
51	Kalumburu	001019	Tmin	Tmax
52	Katanning	010579	Tmin	Tmax
53	Kerang	080023	Tmin	Tmax
54	Kyancutta	018044	Tmin	Tmax
55	Larapuna (Eddystone Point)	092045	Tmin	Tmax
56	Launceston Airport	091311	Tmin	Tmax
57	Laverton RAAF	087031	Tmin	Tmax
58	Learmonth	005007	Tmin	Tmax
59	Longreach	036031	Tmin	Tmax
60	Low Head	091293	Tmin	Tmax
61	Mackay	033119	Tmin	Tmax
62	Marble Bar	004106	Tmin	Tmax
63	Marree	017031	Tmin	Tmax
64	Meekatharra	007045	Tmin	Tmax
65	Melbourne	086071	Tmin	Tmax
66	Merredin	010092	Tmin	Tmax
67	Mildura	076031	Tmin	Tmax
68	Miles	042112	Tmin	Tmax
69	Morawa	008296	Tmin	Tmax
70	Moree	053115	Tmin	Tmax
71	Moruya Heads	069018	Tmin	Tmax
72	Mount Gambier	026021	Tmin	Tmax
73	Nhill	078015	Tmin	Tmax
74	Normanton	029063	Tmin	Tmax
75	Nowra	068072	Tmin	Tmax
76	Nuriootpa	023373	Tmin	Tmax
77	Oodnadatta	017043	Tmin	Tmax
78	Orbost	084145	Tmin	Tmax
79	Palmerville	028004	Tmin	Tmax
80	Perth	009021	Tmin	Tmax
81	Point Perpendicular	068151	Tmin	Tmax
82	Port Hedland	004032	Tmin	Tmax
83	Port Lincoln	018192	Tmin	Tmax
84	Port Macquarie	060139	Tmin	Tmax
85	Rabbit Flat	015666	Tmin	Tmax
86	Richmond (NSW)	067105	Tmin	Tmax
87	Richmond (Qld)	030045	Tmin	Tmax
88	Robe	026026	Tmin	Tmax
89	Rockhampton	039083	Tmin	Tmax
90	Rutherglen	082039	Tmin	Tmax
91	Sale	085072	Tmin	Tmax
92	Scone	061363	Tmin	Tmax
93	Snowtown	021133	Tmin	Tmax
94	St George	043109	Tmin	Tmax
95	Sydney	066062	Tmin	Tmax
96	Tarcoola	016098	Tmin	Tmax
97	Tennant Creek	015135	Tmin	Tmax
98	Thargomindah	045025	Tmin	Tmax
99	Tibooburra	046037	Tmin	Tmax
100	Townsville	032040	Tmin	Tmax
101	Victoria River Downs	014825	Tmin	Tmax
102	Wagga Wagga	072150	Tmin	Tmax
103	Walgett	052088	Tmin	Tmax
104	Wandering	010917	Tmin	Tmax
105	Weipa	027045	Tmin	Tmax
106	Wilcannia	046043	Tmin	Tmax
107	Williamtown	061078	Tmin	Tmax
108	Wilsons Promontory	085096	Tmin	Tmax
109	Wittenoom	005026	Tmin	Tmax
110	Woomera	016001	Tmin	Tmax
111	Wyalong	073054	Tmin	Tmax
112	Yamba	058012	Tmin	Tmax

Each figure contains annual mean temperature series, including the raw ADAM (CDO) data (derived from the monthly mean temperatures available from the BoM CDO portal), and the ACORN-SAT data (derived from the daily values available from the BoM long-term temperature record).

For the raw series, each annual mean value is calculated as the average of twelve months for the relevant calendar year. If one month is missing, the calendar year is excluded from the series.

For the ACORN-SAT series, the monthly averages are first calculated from daily values (following the BoM method: “If more than 10 days of data are missing in a given month, that monthly average is deemed to be missing”), and then the annual mean is calculated in the same way as for the raw series discussed above.

For each temperature series spanning 10 years or more, a least-squares regression line is shown with the associated rate of warming or cooling (degrees Celsius over a century) indicated. Each figure also shows whether ACORN-SAT V2 indicates an increased or decreased rate of warming in comparison with ACORN-SAT V1.

A note on weightings:

The average temperature anomaly series for Australia (or the separate states/regions as in the BoM climate change tracker) are effectively weighted averages of the individual ACORN-SAT series.

The process is explained here: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/acorn-sat/#tabs=Methods

Each ACORN-SAT site is associated with a monthly weight, based on the area it represents (its footprint), which depends on how close its nearest neighbours are.

As mainland ACORN-SAT is a daily dataset, and not all 112 records are 100% complete from 1910 to today, the weights change (potentially on a daily basis – as the mix of available stations changes, but the weights are only given per month.) Also note that the BoM excludes (or at least this is what they say) the 8 urban sites – so they actually only consider 104 ACORN-SAT sites for areal averaging purposes.

The Tmax weights are here: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/acorn/sat/data/tmax. monthly.v2.weight.tar.g

The Tmin weights are here: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/acorn/sat/data/tmin. monthly.v2.weight.tar.gz

The weights are not assigned to stations and then the average calculated as the weighted sum, but rather the individual data points are interpolated on a regular 2D grid across Australia using a certain areal interpolation algorithm (Barnes successive correction). Once this is done and the average determined through the grid, the influence of each of the 112 sites are inferred after-the-fact (or as an output of the interpolation algorithm), and this influence is expressed as a “weight”.

So each weight can be seen as an estimated influence of each site on the national average, but they aren’t actually used as you would normally in calculating a weighted average. Alice Springs had a weight of 0.08814 for most of 1910-1912. The latest published value is 0.03314.