Abstract:
Rimfrost is a 100% free of charge website containing temperature measurements
from more than 500 observation stations worldwide. These have been chosen, so
that from both a national and a global perspective, the measurements, when
statistically corrected, shall give the most reliable estimates of global
temperature change.
As climate development in the major industrial nations is expected to be
... of
major interest, USA is represented with 25 weather stations, China with
approximately 20, Russia with 25, Germany with 44, U.K. with 25, France with
10, Japan with 10, India with 30 etc.
Climate change in Northern Atlantic region is also considered to be important.
Because of this the Nordic nations have been especially well instrumented.
Norway with its long coastline with the Atlantic Ocean has approx. 50 stations,
Sweden approx. 30 and Finland 10. This is a natural reason for the development
of Rimfrost by a University College in this region (NITH/OSLO).
The Rimfrost database contains mainly long time series measurements. We have
consciously chosen observation stations that have measured temperature over
long time periods. This gives the best conditions for obtaining more insight
into how the climate has changed. Uppsala has measurements from approx. 1720,
Stykkisholmur (Iceland) from 1830, New York from 1822, Berlin from 1701, London
from 1840, Beijing from 1841, Calcutta from 1816 etc. In many cases the
observation station has been moved and the local climate has changed through,
for example, increased urbanization. In such cases climate researchers have
tried to homogenize measurements in order they can be as comparable as possible
over long periods of time.
Rimfrost contains reasonably modern analytical tools for extended time series.
The system's major strength is that it contains global data series. These can
be combined in a variety of ways and form the basis for detailed studies and
modeling. The analytical tools also include temperature trend analyses. This
makes it possible to calculate the average change for all weather stations in a
particular country. It is also possible to compare groups of countries. (Ex
G8-countries)
Rimfrost is multilingual. So far it is available in English (standard), German,
Spanish, Finnish,Icelandic, Swedish and Norwegian. More languages are to come. 
