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New Method ProvesmdashAga inmdashClimateChange Is RealIn response to contrarian takes on the measurement of global average temperatures climate

scientist demonstrates global warming via historic ocean temperatures and air pressure

By Stephanie Paige Ogburn and ClimateWire | April 10 2013

In August 2012 John Christy a climate

scientist from the University of Alabama

Huntsville testified to the Senate

Environment and Public Works Committee

that the Earth is not warming

In part Christys testimony a controversial

one was based on what he described as a

problem with how surface temperatures are

measured and a veraged

Climate scientist Gilbert Compos response

to that was Well Ill measure those

temperatures differently

So he set out to use an entirely different

method to determine if the Earths surface temperature had increased 12 degrees

Celsius since preindustrial times

The answer Undeniably yes

This new method shows that it is not a factor of measurement error and that the Earth

has in fact warmed said Compo

Data from ships logs and Army basesIf I had ever had any doubts about whether global warming was happening then this

[study] which I know has no relationship to the land-based observations dashed all

of my doubts Compo said The results of the study were published online Monday in

the journal Geophysical Research Letters

The locations of weather stations changes in instruments the siting of weather

stations in warmer urban areas changes in land cover and other issues have all been

cited as issues affecting the temperature trends often used to show that our planet is

in fact warming

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Compos method uses none of these Instead the researcher and his colleagues use

historic measurements of air pressure and ocean temperatures put into a model to

calibrate surface temperatures over the 20th century

That project called the 20th Century Reanalysis gets those pressure data from

historic data sources like ship logs and Army bases which are compiled by volunteers

at oldweatherorg and ACRE two efforts that catalog old weather data and make them

available to researchers

Those many many pieces of air pressure data help Compo and his team piece together

a snapshot of what was happening in the weather at a given point in time every six

hours since the 1870s in fact

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If the researchers can spot pressure highs and lows then they know where the wind is

blowing for instance As they continue to add data points from around the globe and

move forward in time a process of elimination takes place until they know what the

temperature is in say Washington DC 100 years ago

When I know where the highs and lows are I know where the hot and cold spots have

to be I can start to line them up said Compo Its like Sudoku

Skeptics remain skeptical

Eugenia Kalnay a professor at the University of Maryland who reviewed the paper

called the model very sophisticated

Kalnay said it provides an answer to climate skeptics who point out that changes in

land use or instrumentation make land-based temperature data unreliable

Climate scientist Roger Pielke Sr and Alabamas Christy whose papers and testimony

are cited in Compos paper as part of the rationale for addressing the issue of whether

surface temperatures have warmed said they admired the researchs approach but

also said it does not address all the questions they have raised about warming trends

Pielke who said one issue ignored in the paper is that land surface temperature

measurements over time show bigger warming trends than measurements from

higher up in a part of the atmosphere called the lower troposphere and that still needs

more explanation

Another issue said Christy is the role of maximum and minimum temperatures

Minimum temperatures have risen more than maximum temperatures possibly due

to land-use changes which as Christy pointed out in his Senate testimony can be

problematic when creating warming trend lines since temperatures are calculated as

an average of minimum and maximum

Pielke agreed that despite this paper the problem of maximum and minimum

temperatures still exists

The Compo et al paper is an original approach Pielke said but they still need to

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Comments

Oldest - Newest

April 10 2013 1103 AMsault

I dont know how many times the scientific community has to undoubtedly prove climate change for

the skeptics to change their mind I guess that without climate skepticism most of these people would just be o bscure anlaysts I mean the media SHOWER these peo ple with attention WAY o ut

of proportion to their credentials and scientific achievements all while nearly ignoring the scientific

consensus that greenhouse gases are changing the climate Some skeptics like Dr Willie Soon are

almost totaly financed by fossil fuel companies

Either way any person with a degree in something can make a name for themselves fairly easily by

delving into the complexity of climate change and coming up with some technobabble that sounds

just plausible enough to confuse the average person T hey dont even have to do real science as is

shown by the utter lack of skeptical papers in peer-reviewed journals Meanwhile the media just

falls all over themselves presenting the he said she said aspects of the story while ignoring the

tremendous differences in credibility and scientific rigor between the two sides For example the

Sunday Morning talk shows had exactly ZERO climate scientists on over the past few years when

discussing this issue Sadly they let corporate lobbyists and politicians that are heavily-dependent

on donations from fossil fuel companies have the vast majority of the air time on the issue instead

So why would we listen to people with a vested financial interest in polluting the air instead of you

knowactual climate scientists You dont go to the candy store for advice on weight loss and you

DEFINITELY dont go to a drug dealer to get rehab right Well this is how we are handling the

climate change issue and were wasting valuable time

Report as Abuse | Link to This

April 10 2013 1115 AMSisko

This is a much better article by Climatewire that demonstrates that there is only a very limited

scientific consensus on the issue of climate change and still much to learn regarding the rate of

change associated with CO2