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Paleoclimatology
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Paleoclimatology is the study of past climate. The word is derived from the Greek root "paleo-," which means "ancient," and the term "climate." Paleoclimate is climate that existed before humans began collecting instrumental measurements of weather (such as temperature from a thermometer, precipitation from a rain gauge, sea level pressure from a barometer, wind speed and direction from an anemometer). Instead of instrumental measurements of weather and climate, paleoclimatologists use natural environmental (or "proxy") records to infer past climate conditions. Paleoclimatology includes the collection of evidence of past climate conditions, as well as the investigation of the climate processes underlying these conditions.
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Publisher's description: The Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments is the first major reference work in its field. It provides the comprehensive overview required by the rapid expansion and specialization of paleoclimatology in recent years. Articles summarize recent findings covering a broad spectrum of the geosciences, including atmospheric sciences, comparative planetology, geochemistry, geophysics, glaciology, paleobotany, paleontology, paleoceanography, and sedimentology, among others.
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Paleoclimatology has really come of age. What is the evidence? For the first time, an Intergovenmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate change assessment will contain a full chapter devoted to the paleoclimate record and how this record informs the global climate change (global warming) debate. A front line of this debate is in the U.S. Congress and the U.S. media. In both places, the science of paleoclimatology is routinely a significant issue and story. For example, Members of Congress are asking for data and more from individual paleoclimatologists, and Congress is behind the more traditional and scholarly recent National Academy study focused on the climate of the last millennium.
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Paleoclimatology encompasses a diverse range of fields most of which are still active areas of research. Measurements have been derived from tree rings, lake sediments, ocean bed sediments, ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica
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The data, available from the International Tree-Ring Data Bank at the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology in Boulder, Colo., were contributed by Fritz Schweingruber and colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research (WSL-Birmensdorf). The data include tree ring width and wood density measurements, and site chronologies. The data represent the largest data contribution in the history of the International Tree-Ring Data Bank.
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Paleoclimatology is the study of climate in the past and generally covers the time period before scientific measurements were begun. This field has expanded enormously over the past number of years as new techniques have been developed and existing ones expanded.
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Paleoclimatology