Weather reports from Captain Cook's voyages may help scientists involved in climate change refine their predictions, according to U.K. research.

The information in ships' logs from these and other voyages may provide a new source of historical data for climate change scientists to test their models.

A team led by Dr Dennis Wheeler from the University of Sunderland has been trawling through ships' logs from 1750 to 1850 to get the first picture of daily weather over the oceans at the time.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, ships' officers maintained accurate records of the wind and weather to help them navigate. They updated their logs daily, sometimes hourly. As a result, international archives hold thousands of records of wind strength and direction, and the state of the sea and the sky.

Most of the research has centred on records by regular seamen held in British, Dutch, French and Spanish archives. But the researchers also studied the logs of Captain James Cook, who commanded three important voyages of discovery between 1768 and 1780, when he charted the east coast of Australia.

"A lot of work has been done recently with world meteorological records going back 150 years. Our work goes back much further," said Wheeler.

"Although oceans cover 75% of the earth's surface, we had very little information about the weather. These logs help us understand how climate changed in the past, which is a very useful tool when predicting climate change in the future," he said.


View: Full Article | Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation