Abstract. Evidence contained within historical documents and inscriptions provides an important record of climate variability for periods prior to the onset of systematic meteorological data collection. A common approach used by historical climatologists to convert such qualitative documentary evidence into continuous quantitative proxy data is through the generation of ordinal-scale climate indices. There is, however, considerable variability in the types of phenomena reconstructed using an index approach and the practice of index development in different parts of the world. This review, written by members of the PAGES CRIAS Working Group – a collective of climate historians and historical climatologists researching Climate Reconstructions and Impacts from the Archives of Societies – provides the first global synthesis of the use of the index approach in climate reconstruction. We begin by summarising the range of studies that have used indices for climate reconstruction across six continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australia) plus the world's oceans. We then outline the different methods by which indices are developed in each of these regions, including a discussion of the processes adopted to verify and calibrate index series, and the measures used to express confidence and uncertainty. We conclude with a series of recommendations to guide the development of future index-based climate reconstructions to maximise their effectiveness for use by climate modellers and in multiproxy climate reconstructions.

中文翻译：

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历史气候重建中的气候指数：全球最新水平

摘要。历史文献和铭文中包含的证据提供了在开始系统地收集气象数据之前一段时间内气候变化的重要记录。历史气候学家用来将这种定性文献证据转换为连续定量代理数据的常用方法是生成序数尺度的气候指数。但是，在世界不同地区，使用索引方法重构的现象类型和索引开发实践存在很大的差异。这篇评论 由PAGES CRIAS工作组成员（由气候历史学家和历史气候学家组成的研究团体，由社会档案馆研究气候重建和影响）撰写的文章，首次对使用索引方法进行气候重建进行了全球综合研究。首先，我们总结了使用六大洲（欧洲，亚洲，非洲，美洲，澳大利亚）以及世界海洋的气候重建指数的研究范围。然后，我们概述了在每个区域中开发指标的不同方法，包括讨论了用于验证和校准指标序列的过程，以及用于表达置信度和不确定性的措施。