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Get NASA's Climate Change News: Subscribe to the Newsletter » Today’s temperature data come from many sources, including more than 32,000 land weather stations, weather balloons, radar, ships and buoys, satellites, and volunteer weather watchers. ![]() Over the past 140 years, we’ve literally gone from making some temperature measurements by hand to using sophisticated satellite technology. Fortunately, consistent temperature estimates made by paleoclimatologists (scientists who study Earth’s past climate using environmental clues like ice cores and tree rings) provide scientists with context for understanding today’s observed warming of Earth’s climate, which has no historic parallel. But before 1880, there just wasn’t enough data to make accurate calculations, resulting in uncertainties in these older records. Scientists have been building estimates of Earth’s average global temperature for more than a century, using temperature records from weather stations. Over time, these changes can lead to measurement inconsistencies that affect temperature data records. There are lots of reasons for this, including changes in the availability of data, technological advancements in how land and sea surface temperatures are measured, the growth of urban areas, and changes to where and when temperature data are collected, to name just a few. ![]() ![]() Ensuring the accuracy of Earth’s long-term global and regional surface temperature records is a challenging, constantly evolving undertaking.
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