EVALUATION OF TEMPERATURE RECORDS OBTAINED BY AWS IN HAINAN PROVINCE AND ADJUSTMENT OF CLIMATOLOGICAL TIME SERIES

Based on the parallel air temperature data of automatic sounding and manual observations at 16 weather stations in Hainan province from 2004 to 2005, a comparative analysis and evaluation is made for validity according to relevant standards. The results indicate that there are daily and seasonal differences between temperature observations recorded by automatic weather stations (AWSs) and with conventional methods. The reasons for the differences are the systematic error, the sensitivity of the two types of instruments to the environmental temperature change, the difference of the observation time and the effect of solar radiation. Because the long-range data were obtained from manual observation, an empirical conversion formula between the temperature records obtained by the instruments is provided for continuous use of the climate data after the changes in instruments.