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Effects of Sample Interval

Notes:

This plot shows the relative temperature (blue in degrees K) , sample width (gray in years) and Δt/ΔT, (black in centuries/degC) all as a function of sample age for the most recent 200K of the Vostok cores.

The ice cores are sliced into a number constant width slices, each of which contain a variable number of years. The Vosrok cores range from about 35 years to over 650 years. During colder times, less precipitation falls and each slice contains more years. Similarly during warm times, each slice contains fewer years. This is a very strong correlation which is evident in all of the ice cores with any kind of averaging applied.

The rate of change in time over the rate of change in temperature is useful to see, on average, how fast the climate changes.