Climate records in ancient Chinese diaries and their application in historical climate reconstruction –  a case  study of <i>Yunshan Diary</i>

Chen, Siying; Su, Yun; Fang, Xiuqi; He, Jia

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1873-2020

Articles | Volume 16, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1873-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

International methods and comparisons in climate reconstruction...

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1873-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 5

Research article

|

06 Oct 2020

Research article |

| 06 Oct 2020

Climate records in ancient Chinese diaries and their application in historical climate reconstruction – a case study of Yunshan Diary

Siying Chen, Yun Su, Xiuqi Fang, and Jia He

Data sets

Standard Monthly Surface Climate Dataset for China (1981–2010) China Meteorological Data Service Center http://data.cma.cn/data/cdcdetail/dataCode/SURF_CLI_CHN_MUL_MMON_19812010.html

Monthly Surface Climate Dataset for China China Meteorological Data Service Center http://data.cma.cn/data/cdcdetail/dataCode/SURF_CLI_CHN_MUL_MON.html

Daily Surface Climate Dataset for China (V3.0) China Meteorological Data Service Center http://data.cma.cn/data/cdcdetail/dataCode/SURF_CLI_CHN_MUL_DAY_V3.0.html

Short summary

Private diaries are important sources of historical data for research on climate change. Through a case study of Yunshan Diary, authored by Bi Guo of the Yuan dynasty of China, this article demonstrates how to delve into climate information in ancient diaries, mainly including species distribution records, phenological records and daily weather descriptions. This article considers how to use these records to reconstruct climate change and extreme climatic events on various timescales.