OK, climate sceptics: here's the raw data you wanted
13:13 28 July 2011 by Andy Coghlan For similar stories, visit the Climate Change Topic Guide
Anyone can now view for themselves the raw data that was at the centre of last year's "climategate" scandal.
Temperature records going back 150 years from 5113 weather stations around the world were yesterday released to the public by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. The only records missing are from 19 stations in Poland, which refused to allow them to be made public.
"We released [the dataset] to dispel the myths that the data have been inappropriately manipulated, and that we are being secretive," says Trevor Davies, the university's pro-vice-chancellor for research. "Some sceptics argue we must have something to hide, and we've released the data to pull the rug out from those who say there isn't evidence that the global temperature is increasing."
Hand it over
The university were ordered to release data by the UK Information Commissioner's Office, following a freedom-of-information request for the raw data from researchers Jonathan Jones of the University of Oxford and Don Keiller of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK.
Davies says that the university initially refused on the grounds that the data is not owned by the CRU but by the national meteorological organisations that collect the data and share it with the CRU.
When the CRU's refusal was overruled by the information commissioner, the UK Met Office was recruited to act as a go-between and obtain permission to release all the data.
Poland refused, and the information commissioner overruled Trinidad and Tobago's wish for the data it supplied on latitudes between 30 degrees north and 40 degrees south to be withheld, as it had been specifically requested by Jones and Keiller in their FOI request and previously shared with other academics.
The price
The end result is that all the records are there, except for Poland's. Davies's only worry is that the decision to release the Trinidad and Tobago data against its wishes may discourage the open sharing of data in the future. Other research organisations may from now on be reluctant to pool data they wish to be kept private.
Thomas Peterson, chief scientist at the National Climatic Data Center of the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and president of the Commission for Climatology at the World Meteorological Organization, agrees there might be a cost to releasing the data.
"I have historic temperature data from automatic weather stations on the Greenland ice sheet that I was able to obtain from Denmark only because I agreed not to release them," he says. "If countries come to expect that sharing of any data with anyone will eventually lead to strong pressure for them to fully release those data, will they be less willing to collaborate in the future?"
Davies is confident that genuine and proper analysis of the raw data will reproduce the same incontrovertible conclusion – that global temperatures are rising. "The conclusion is very robust," he says, explaining that the CRU's dataset of land temperatures tally with those from other independent research groups around the world, including those generated by the NOAA and NASA.
"Should people undertake analyses and come up with different conclusions, the way to present them is through publication in peer-reviewed journals, so we know it's been through scientific quality control," says Davies.
Other mainstream researchers and defenders of the consensus are not so confident that the release will silence the sceptics. "One can hope this might put an end to the interminable discussion of the CRU temperatures, but the experience of GISTEMP – another database that's been available for years – is that the criticisms will continue because there are some people who are never going to be satisfied," says Gavin Schmidt of Columbia University in New York.
"Sadly, I think this will just lead to a new round of attacks on CRU and the Met Office," says Bob Ward, communications director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics. "Sceptics will pore through the data looking for ways to criticise the processing methodology in an attempt to persuade the public that there's doubt the world has warmed significantly."
The CRU and its leading scientist, Phil Jones, were at the centre of the so-called "climategate" storm in 2009 when the unit was accused of withholding and manipulating data. It was later cleared of the charge.
Kyllä usko meni viimeistään silloin, kun todettiin NASA:n "siivonneen" pois 6000 "epäilyttävän" mittausaseman tiedot pois ja Suomesta IPCC:lle menneen lämpötilalukemia, joista oli "unohtunut" miinumerkki pois.
ANTARCTICA is rising like a cheese soufflé: slowly but surely. Lost ice due to climate change and left-over momentum from the end of the last big ice age mean the buoyant continent is heaven-bound.
Donald Argus of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and colleagues used 15 years of GPS data to show that parts of the Ellsworth mountains in west Antarctica are rising by around 5 millimetres a year (Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2011gl048025). Elsewhere on the continent, the rise is slower.
A faster rise has been seen in Greenland, which is thought to be popping up by 4 centimetres a year.
Ongoing climate change could be partly to blame: Antarctica is losing about 200 gigatonnes of ice per year, and for Greenland the figure is 300 gigatonnes. Earth's continents sit on viscous magma, so the effect of this loss is like taking a load off a dense foam mattress.
But there is another possible contributor. "The Earth has a very long memory," says Argus. As a result, "there is also a viscous response to ice loss from around 5000 to 10,000 years ago going on".
Despite this effect, the known ice loss at both poles suggests that embedded in the local rises is a signal of current climate change - researchers just have to tease it out.
Nobody denies there is a climate change possibly ongoeing. Such has happened from time to time as long as we know from history. Question is, is it because of anthropogenic acivity, because of higher concentration of manmade carbon dioxide?
Hannu T Tanskanen, Vapaa tiedetoimittaja, Tekniikan Maailman tiedekirjoittaja 2003-2008, Muutos 2011 puolueen eduskuntavaali 2015 ehdokas. Vihdin kunnan 2. varavaltuutettu, ympäristölautakunnan jäsen, katselmusjaoston puheenjohtaja, ilmastostrategiaryhmän jäsen, Vihdin Veden johtokunnan varajäsen, Vihdin perussuomalaisten hallituksen jäsen ja varajäsen 2012-2014, Vihdin perussuomalaisten eurovaaliehdokas 2014.
Ilmastoblogien "Top 10" listalla 2013
Medianäkyvyyden asiantuntija CISION on listannut Suomen 2013 "Top 10" ilmastoblogit. Tämä blogi on ensimmäisenä kriittisenä blogina sijalla 8. Linkkiluettelossa (alla) CISION:n sivu.
"Seuraa niitä,jotka etsivät totuutta,
vältä niitä,jotka väittävät sen löytäneensä"
(Vaclav Havel)
Varaosat ja lisävarusteet historiallisiin ja urheiluautoihin (palvelu suomeksi)
Spareparts and accessories for historic and sportive cars (click picture)
"The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"
"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens" (Friedrich Schiller)
UAH lower troposphere temperature data,Mauna Loa CO2 data,NOAA SWPC solar information
"Ei voi kuljettaa totuuden soihtua väkijoukossa käräyttämättä jonkun partaa" ( Sokrates 469 - 399 eaa. )
OK, climate sceptics: here's the raw data you wanted
VastaaPoista13:13 28 July 2011 by Andy Coghlan
For similar stories, visit the Climate Change Topic Guide
Anyone can now view for themselves the raw data that was at the centre of last year's "climategate" scandal.
Temperature records going back 150 years from 5113 weather stations around the world were yesterday released to the public by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. The only records missing are from 19 stations in Poland, which refused to allow them to be made public.
"We released [the dataset] to dispel the myths that the data have been inappropriately manipulated, and that we are being secretive," says Trevor Davies, the university's pro-vice-chancellor for research. "Some sceptics argue we must have something to hide, and we've released the data to pull the rug out from those who say there isn't evidence that the global temperature is increasing."
Hand it over
The university were ordered to release data by the UK Information Commissioner's Office, following a freedom-of-information request for the raw data from researchers Jonathan Jones of the University of Oxford and Don Keiller of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK.
Davies says that the university initially refused on the grounds that the data is not owned by the CRU but by the national meteorological organisations that collect the data and share it with the CRU.
When the CRU's refusal was overruled by the information commissioner, the UK Met Office was recruited to act as a go-between and obtain permission to release all the data.
Poland refused, and the information commissioner overruled Trinidad and Tobago's wish for the data it supplied on latitudes between 30 degrees north and 40 degrees south to be withheld, as it had been specifically requested by Jones and Keiller in their FOI request and previously shared with other academics.
The price
The end result is that all the records are there, except for Poland's. Davies's only worry is that the decision to release the Trinidad and Tobago data against its wishes may discourage the open sharing of data in the future. Other research organisations may from now on be reluctant to pool data they wish to be kept private.
Thomas Peterson, chief scientist at the National Climatic Data Center of the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and president of the Commission for Climatology at the World Meteorological Organization, agrees there might be a cost to releasing the data.
"I have historic temperature data from automatic weather stations on the Greenland ice sheet that I was able to obtain from Denmark only because I agreed not to release them," he says. "If countries come to expect that sharing of any data with anyone will eventually lead to strong pressure for them to fully release those data, will they be less willing to collaborate in the future?"
Davies is confident that genuine and proper analysis of the raw data will reproduce the same incontrovertible conclusion – that global temperatures are rising. "The conclusion is very robust," he says, explaining that the CRU's dataset of land temperatures tally with those from other independent research groups around the world, including those generated by the NOAA and NASA.
"Should people undertake analyses and come up with different conclusions, the way to present them is through publication in peer-reviewed journals, so we know it's been through scientific quality control," says Davies.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20739-ok-climate-sceptics-heres-the-raw-data-you-wanted.html
No convincing some people
VastaaPoistaOther mainstream researchers and defenders of the consensus are not so confident that the release will silence the sceptics. "One can hope this might put an end to the interminable discussion of the CRU temperatures, but the experience of GISTEMP – another database that's been available for years – is that the criticisms will continue because there are some people who are never going to be satisfied," says Gavin Schmidt of Columbia University in New York.
"Sadly, I think this will just lead to a new round of attacks on CRU and the Met Office," says Bob Ward, communications director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics. "Sceptics will pore through the data looking for ways to criticise the processing methodology in an attempt to persuade the public that there's doubt the world has warmed significantly."
The CRU and its leading scientist, Phil Jones, were at the centre of the so-called "climategate" storm in 2009 when the unit was accused of withholding and manipulating data. It was later cleared of the charge.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20739-ok-climate-sceptics-heres-the-raw-data-you-wanted.html
Niin, kommentteja?
VastaaPoistaNo tuossa lisää kylmää IPCC:n niskaan
VastaaPoistahttp://pielkeclimatesci.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/new-paper-on-the-misdiagnosis-of-surface-temperature-feedbacks-from-variations-in-earth%E2%80%99s-radiant-energy-balance-by-spencer-and-braswell-2011/
Kyllä NS:n artikkelin valossa lämpötilat ovat nousseet. Joillekin "skeptikoille" ei riitä mikään.
VastaaPoistaKyllä usko meni viimeistään silloin, kun todettiin NASA:n "siivonneen" pois 6000 "epäilyttävän" mittausaseman tiedot pois ja Suomesta IPCC:lle menneen lämpötilalukemia, joista oli "unohtunut" miinumerkki pois.
VastaaPoistaVoithan itse analysoida datan ja julkaista löydöksesi.
VastaaPoistaRaakadata kuitenkin yksiselitteisesti viittaa siihen, että ilmsto on lämmennyt.
Antarctica rising as ice caps melt
VastaaPoista31 July 2011
Magazine issue 2823
ANTARCTICA is rising like a cheese soufflé: slowly but surely. Lost ice due to climate change and left-over momentum from the end of the last big ice age mean the buoyant continent is heaven-bound.
Donald Argus of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and colleagues used 15 years of GPS data to show that parts of the Ellsworth mountains in west Antarctica are rising by around 5 millimetres a year (Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2011gl048025). Elsewhere on the continent, the rise is slower.
A faster rise has been seen in Greenland, which is thought to be popping up by 4 centimetres a year.
Ongoing climate change could be partly to blame: Antarctica is losing about 200 gigatonnes of ice per year, and for Greenland the figure is 300 gigatonnes. Earth's continents sit on viscous magma, so the effect of this loss is like taking a load off a dense foam mattress.
But there is another possible contributor. "The Earth has a very long memory," says Argus. As a result, "there is also a viscous response to ice loss from around 5000 to 10,000 years ago going on".
Despite this effect, the known ice loss at both poles suggests that embedded in the local rises is a signal of current climate change - researchers just have to tease it out.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128235.300-antarctica-rising-as-ice-caps-melt.html
Nobody denies there is a climate change possibly ongoeing. Such has happened from time to time as long as we know from history. Question is, is it because of anthropogenic acivity, because of higher concentration of manmade carbon dioxide?
VastaaPoistaRoy Spencer
VastaaPoista