Analysis of local archived atmospheric pressure data

Abstract

20th Century climate data is vital for understanding and developing future climate change projections. The availability of robust and long climate time series and many meteorological observations are underexploited in the Mediterranean, despite being a climate change hotspot. The central location of the Maltese Islands in the Mediterranean region is fundamental for climaterelated research, although, the country lacks sufficient data and related research. Most climate predictions involve the use of historical meteorological data to lessen climate-related uncertainties, conjectures and speculations. Consequently, such data will support public policy decisions through enhanced knowledge, which enable reliable predictions of potential climate changes. This study assesses unique sources containing historical atmospheric pressure data of the Maltese Islands from global online repositories and local physical archives of Malta, with emphasis on the rich holdings at the University of Malta. The primary aim is to digitise and analyse historical atmospheric pressure dataset collected between 1927 and 1960. To achieve the goal of extending Malta’s climatic history, the study required several adjustments of raw data, which comprised of several inconsistencies and erroneous data. Furthermore, another aim was to assess the statistical significance among raw data and reference data, carried out by the Paired Samples T-Test through the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The main findings show a slight gradual increase in atmospheric pressure throughout the dataset, although, this was not significant. Thus, the alternative hypothesis was rejected. This is the first comprehensive study on the atmospheric pressure of the Maltese Islands. Thus, this study highlights the need to analyse longer and higher quality climate records to support scientific and technical assessments, as well as relevant policies.