NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service National Climatic Data Center, U.S. Department of Commerce
World Data Center for Paleoclimatology, NCDC Paleoclimatology Branch
 
Paleoclimatology Navigation Bar
NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA National Climatic Data Center U.S. Department of Commerce Paleo Home Research Data Education What's New Features Paleo Perspectives Site Map
HISTORICAL

Garcia et al. 2001 Manila Galleons Voyage Records
Map of data site
Garcia, R.R;Diaz, H.F.;García Herrera, R.;Eischeid, J.;del Rosario Prieto, M.;Hernández, E.;Gimeno, L.;Durán, F.R.;Bascary, A.M. 2001 Atmospheric Circulation Changes in the Tropical Pacific Inferred from the Voyages of the Manila Galleons in the Sixteenth - Eighteenth Centuries Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Vol. 82, Number 11, pp. 2435, November 2001
Data Coverage North: 16.85 * South: 14.583
West: -99.916 * East: 120.95
Altitude: 0 m

Start Year: 1591 AD * End Year: 1750 AD

Data:     Please Cite Data Contributors!
  pubs/garcia2001/garcia2001.html

Summary:

Historical accounts of the voyages of the Manila galleons derived from the Archivo General de Indias (General Archive of the Indies, Seville, Spain) are used to infer past changes in the atmospheric circulation of the tropical Pacific Ocean. It is shown that the length of the voyage between Acapulco, Mexico, and the Philippine Islands during the period 1590-1750 exhibits large secular trends, such that voyages in the middle of the seventeenth century are some 40% longer than those at the beginning or at the end of the century, and that these trends are unlikely to have been caused by societal or technological factors. Analysis of a series of "virtual voyages," constructed from modern wind data, indicates that sailing time to the Philippines depended critically on the strength of the trade winds and the position of the western Pacific monsoon trough. These results suggest that the atmospheric circulation of the western Pacific underwent large, multidecadal fluctuations during the seventeenth century.
More Info on Historical Data

Complete XML Record:

noaa-historical-5413  (Last Revised: 2007-05-24 )

NOAA logo DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC (National Climatic Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce )
325 Broadway, E/CC23
Boulder, CO 80305
USA
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/
E-mail: bruce.a.bauer@noaa.gov
E-mail: paleo@noaa.gov
Phone: 303-497-6280
Fax: 303-497-6513