Comparación de dos técnicas para estimar temperaturas medias, con fines agroecológicos, en localidades carentes de registros

Abstract

Based on thermometric information of 73 meteorological stations in Costa Rica, an evaluation was made of two widely used techniques to estimate average air temperatures of localities where no weather stations exist. The first technique consists of calculating the equations of the relation altitude/ temperature, whereas the second is based on calculation of the median gradient based in drawing rectilineous isotherms, reduced to sea level temperatures. Statistical analysis indicates that the estimated temperatures obtained by these techniques are highly similar to the observed temperatures of the localities with temperatures records (F= 465.7 and F= 678.7 respectively). The use of the first technique which is less complicated is recommended for regions where temperature records of a reasonable number of stations are available. The second technique is more complicated and is recommended for cases where less information is available.