The observational record

The IPCC Data Distribution Centre provides access to observed data covering the physical climate (e.g. global distributions temperature and rainfall), atmospheric composition, socio-economic information (e.g. national population and income data), and impacts of climate change. Use the links below to reach these 4 sections:

• Observations of the climate
  • Global mean temperature data used in the AR4 assessment report;
  • High resolution climatology prepared by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia (UEA).
  • Previous version of CRU data preserved for reference.
• Carbon Dioxide: observed atmospheric concentrations
• Socio-Economic Baseline Dataset
• IPCC AR4 Observed Climate Change Impacts
• Environmental Data and Scenarios