Microwave Sounding Unit Data

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Temperatures in the lowest 8km (5 miles) of the troposphere were 0.15°C (0.27°F) above average during July 2002, or the fourth warmest July in the satellite period of record (1979 to present)

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July 2002 temperatures were below average in the lower stratosphere, with a departure of -0.27°C (-0.49°F) July temperatures in the lower stratosphere have been below average each year since 1993. The overall cooling trend is consistent with the response to losses in stratospheric ozone while the warm anomalies in 1992 are due to the warming influence of the Mount Pinatubo eruption which occurred in the Philippines in June 1991.

Lower tropospheric and lower stratospheric temperature data are collected by NOAA's TIROS-N polar-orbiting satellites and adjusted for time-dependent biases by NASA and the Global Hydrology and Climate Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.