Oh the Wheels on the Bus are Falling Off, Falling Off
Update: Thanks to an email from John S. – a patron of climateaudit.org – we have learned that the Russian data in NOAA’s GHCN v2.mean dataset is corrupted. For most (if not all) stations in Russia, the September data has been replicated as October data, artificially raising the October temperature many degrees. The data from NOAA is used by GISS to calculate the global temperature. Thus the record-setting anomaly for October 2008 is invalid and we await the highly-publicised corrections from NOAA and GISS. watts up with that
Looks like Gore’s favorite “climate scientist” has taken September temps and called them October.
Ooopsie.
November 11th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Some Russian is your favourite climate scientist?
I suspect that this happens all the time. Data does not come in on time so someone makes a “guess” until the accurate data comes in. My “guess” is that it would have gotten corrected in a while, but it is good to have it pointed out sooner rather than later.
Regards,
John.
November 11th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Good description of the process over here.
Also an interesting look at the whole issue of what gets audited and how.
Regards,
John
November 11th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
John, the guy in charge is Jim Hansen alarmist and Al Gore’s AGW mentor.
As to the error: we are getting ready to spend trillions of dollars and destroy entire sectors of our economy in order to reduce CO2 emissions. I would be a little more confident that that is the right course of action if these “climate scientists” were a little less cavalier about making announcements first and checking the numbers second.
It is gradually becoming apparent that what we do not know about climate is significantly greater than what we do. And yet we are apparently prepared to make significant policy decisions with real economic consequences based on unaudited and, in many cases, unverified numbers, theories and suppositions. I think that is a bad idea.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Jay: Dr. Hansen may be the one in charge but he is not the person who switched the data. The GISS takes data that are reported to it. It is up to the individual stations (or in some cases countries) to report the data.
In regards to some of your other comments – you say little less cavalier about making announcements first and checking the numbers second. Do you have a link to where there was an announcement, press release or anything about the October anomaly? I looked but couldn’t find one.
I do not accept your statement that what we don’t know is significantly greater than what we do know. An excellent example was in the link I posted above. Three years ago a new study came out saying that the oceans had cooled which is opposite to what was expected. Now it turns out that there were some issues with some of the new sensors used and – as expected – the oceans have warmed. We don’t know everything but our knowledge has improved a great deal and even more important is increasing every year.
Regards,
John
November 11th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
So John, is the earth getting warmer or is it jumping all over? Even then, I haven’t heard anyone indicating that a colder earth is a good idea. So I would like to know exactly what we are supposed to be spending our money on? The status quo, the worst case scenario, or some extrapolation of a computer model ? There are some really fundamental questions I haven’t seen a decent answer to, let alone a rationale to begin to change a behavioural pattern.
November 12th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Bob on the buoy: The earth appears to be getting warmer with fluctuations going on all the time. I agree that a colder earth would not be a good thing, but neither would a warmer one. In regards to spending money and solutions, that depends on how convinced you are that there is a problem.
Jay: In all seriousness, when you talked about making announcements, was there an announcement made about this anomaly? I can’t find one, but that is not to say it didn’t exist.
Regards,
John
November 12th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Thanks John for a non-answer to the questions.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:37 am
Bob: Hey, if you want better answers then ask better questions. I could write several pages on your first one alone talking about longterm trends, statistics, etc. So if you can frame a reasonable question, I can try to provide a reasonable answer.
Regards,
John