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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 24, NO. 18, PAGES 2319–2322, 1997

The Continuing Search for an Anthropogenic Climate Change Signal: Limitations of Correlation-Based Approaches

David R. Legates

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana


Robert E. Davis

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia


Abstract

Several recent studies claim to have found evidence of large-scale climate changes that were attributed to human influences. These assertions are based on increases in correlation over time between general circulation model prognostications and observations as derived from a centred pattern correlation statistic. We argue that the results of such studies are inappropriate because of limitations and biases in these statistics which leads us to conclude that the results of many studies employing these statistics may be erroneous and, in fact, show little evidence of a human fingerprint in the observed records.

Received 24 March 1997; accepted 29 July 1997.

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Citation: Legates, D. R., and R. E. Davis (1997), The Continuing Search for an Anthropogenic Climate Change Signal: Limitations of Correlation-Based Approaches, Geophys. Res. Lett., 24(18), 2319–2322.