Global atmospheric temperature trends from the middle troposphere to the upper stratosphere are investigated based on the simulations from the Coupled Climate Model Inter-comparison Project phase 5(CMIP5) together with NOAA satellite observations from 1979 to 2005.Results show that the CMIP5 model simulations can reproduce the features of stratospheric cooling and tropospheric warming,which are consistent with the observations,but the CMIP5 simulations display different latitudinal-longitudinal patterns from SSU/MSU measurements,with significant discrepancies among the selected models.Compared with observations,the CMIP5 simulations significantly underestimate the stratospheric cooling in the tropics and substantially overestimate the cooling over the Antarctic in the MSU observations.The largest standard variation among the seven CMIP5 simulations is seen in both the south and north polar regions in the stratosphere,and the standard variation retains similar small values at all latitudes in the troposphere.