Abstract
Long daily surface air temperature series from 24 European and Asian stations are analyzed, among them the Central England temperature dataset (1772 – 2005). The mean seasonal cycle in each series is removed and correlations between the consecutive increments of various increment intervals for the anomaly series are calculated. The sample correlations appear to behave similarly for all series. A positive coefficient between the short-term (daily etc) increments rapidly changes to the negative side while the increment interval increases. The value of the coefficient saturates at the level −0.5 and stays at that level for long range of intervals from 20 to 2000 days. The feature is a testimony to the regulating role of (cumulative) negative feedback in the climate system during the last two centuries.
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