Question
What is the mean difference in the temperature at the North and South Poles
I would like to know the average daily temperature difference (either
conditionally on a time or year or unconditionally [i.e., overall])
between the North and South Poles. More specifically, I would like to find
a source that has a 95% (or 90%, 99%) confidence interval for the mean
temperature difference between the North and South Poles. The source is
important because I would like to cite the specific work.
I'm mostly curious about this difference, but I would like to use the confidence
interval as an example in a research paper.
Thank you!
Ken
Answer
Although I cannot give you a direct answer I can point you to some data sources.
The South Pole Observatory was established at the geographical south pole, 2837 m above sea level, in 1957 as part of the International Geophysical Year. Records from the weather station there are available from 1997 to present at the website: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/obop/met/spo/.
The North Pole, on the other hand, as it is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, has no permanent weather station. However, the International Arctic Buoy Programme has been acquiring surface temperatures since 1979. These data may be accessed at: http://iabp.apl.washington.edu/.
Another source that could provide data to an answer your question is the product of numerical weather models. See:http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/cdc/reanalysis/reanalysis.shtml
If you do work with the S. Pole and IABP data, don't forget to take into account the elevation difference. You should adjust the S. Pole observations to sea level before comparing them with the N. Pole observations.
Good Luck,
S.J.S. Khalsa
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