Identification of historic meteorological records to support research into climate change

由罗伯特·比克斯教授领导的布里斯托尔大学的一项新研究旨在帮助全面了解中国在南海及其周边地区的气象观测和实践，这些观测和实践可追溯到19世纪中叶。这是人文研究作为坚实科学进步基础的一个罕见而令人兴奋的例子。这项工作为英国气象局哈德利中心的“地球大气环流重建”[http://www.met-acre.org/]]项目做出了贡献，该项目推进了对气候变化原因的研究。这项工作是一个全球项目的一部分，该项目试图重建一系列可追溯到18世纪中期的天气状况。比克斯教授与英国气象局哈德利中心的罗布·艾伦博士以及布里斯托尔大学历史系的近期博士毕业生凯瑟琳·拉德兹博士合作，将人文学科奖学金应用于科学研究。Ladds博士检索了中国的档案资料，寻找19世纪东亚和东南亚在常规气象来源之外的气象实践信息和气候条件记录，特别是“传统”和“非传统”人文资源，如船舶日志和未发表的数据。这项研究也使人们对中国海关气象活动的历史、其在中国沿海气象中更广泛的作用、其收集和分发数据的标准和程序以及这些记录的后续历史有了新的认识。比克斯教授的研究结果将被埃克塞特的英国气象局哈德利中心使用。这项研究有助于扩大对东亚和东南亚海洋和河流表面观测天气数据覆盖范围的认识，并有助于完成全球项目的一系列全球天气重建。它产生了迄今为止该领域最全面的英文清单，发现的中国历史天气观测数据反过来可以帮助重建中国内陆站和南海周围的观测数据：该项目可以恢复、成像和数字化它们。

New research by the University of Bristol, led by Professor Robert Bickers, aims to help the development of a comprehensive picture of Chinese meteorological observations and practices in and around the South China Sea, dating back to the mid-19th century. It is a rare and exciting example of humanities research as a basis for solid scientific improvement. The work contributes to the Met Office Hadley Centre's 'Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth' [http://www.met-acre.org/] project, which advances research into the causes of climate change. The work is part of a global project attempting to reconstruct a series of weather conditions dating as far back as the mid-18th century. Professor Bickers worked with Dr Rob Allan at the Met Office Hadley Centre and recent PhD graduate Dr Catherine Ladds at the Department of History at the University of Bristol, in this application of humanities scholarship to scientific research. Dr Ladds searched Chinese archives for information about meteorological practices and for records of climate conditions in 19th century East and South-East Asia that are outside of usual meteorological sources, specifically 'traditional' and 'non-traditional' humanities sources such as ships' logbooks and unpublished data.The research also informed a new understanding of the history of Chinese Maritime Customs meteorological activity, its role in China coast meteorology more widely, its standards and procedures for collecting and distributing data and the subsequent history of those records. Professor Bickers's findings are to be used by the Met Office Hadley Centre at Exeter. The research has helped broaden knowledge of East and South East Asian maritime and riverine surface observational weather data coverage, and contributed to helping to complete the global project's series of global weather reconstructions. It has resulted in the most comprehensive English language inventory of this field to date and the historical Chinese weather observations uncovered can in turn help to reconstruct the observations made at Chinese inland stations and around the South China Sea: the project can recover, image and digitise them.