Research has found no increase in global temperature variability despite changing regional patterns.
Paper on global temperature variability makes top 100 of 2013
An article co-authored by two Exeter scientists has been included in a list of the 100 most popular research papers of the past year.
The article, No increase in global temperature variability despite changing regional patterns, reached number 42 on the Altmetric 2013 Top 100 – compiled using the attention data received by scholarly submissions.
The study was led by Dr Chris Huntingford from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and also involved Professor Peter Cox from Mathematics and Professor Tim Lenton from Geography at the University of Exeter, along with Professor Phil Jones from the University of East Anglia and Dr Valerie Livina of the National Physical Laboratory.
Published in Nature in July, the research provided evidence that contrary to popular opinion, temperature variability has not increased across the globe, instead the regions of high variability have shifted since 1980. Regions such as Western Europe and the US are now experiencing increased temperature variability, but this has been offset by reduced variability in the tropics.
Altmetric said only papers that became “extremely popular” made the top 100 and that many received a huge amount of attention because they related to current events, reflected interesting scientific findings – or were “just plain quirky.”
Professor Lenton said: “We’re delighted to have made the top 100 most popular research papers of 2013. It is certainly a varied list! Our paper challenges the assumption that global warming is increasing climate variability. It is good to see this important issue attracted so much attention.”
The top spot on the list went to an article on cesium contamination in freshwater fish in Fukushima and Eastern Japan, whilst the 100th most popular of 2013 concerned egg consumption and the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke.
Date: 13 December 2013
