Cut and paste data splicing is a
scientific norm in palaeoclimatology, where temperatures antedating the
development of the thermometer must be
inferred from proxies as various as tree rings ,coral. and wine vintages. The
lack of an ancient instrumental temperature
record has led to much recrimination,
like the Hockey Stick fracas, but
it is often assumed that the modern record stands in contrast as a
sterling example of the hard data
Not quite. One of the most
conspicuous glitches in the slow-changing record of global climate is the .3
degree downturn in the record of global warming that the literature records for
1945. It has been unconvincingly attributed to everything from the
A new paper by David Thompson
and othe NOAA atmospheric scientists in
Nature reports a different explanation .Most of the wartime measurements
of sea temperatures factored int the global average came from US warships, which unlike the
British navy tended to log engine room
water intake thermometer readings
as representing the temperature of the sea.
The hardy jack tars who
returned to meteorological duty as the war wound down instead relied as
always on the time honored method of throwing a bucket over the side ,hauling it
in , and putting it on deck for a thermometer wielding chief or officer to
measure . The late Victorian change from oaken buckets to galvanized steel was compounded before
World War II, when not just British, but Dutch and Japanese hydrographers were issued porous and hence cooling-prone canvas seawater scoops , a Bad Idea since the wind is generally brisk on a moving vesse. Inevitably, the seawater
sampled tended to cool - evidently measurably, in the time it took to present
it on deck for measurement.
Between this newly detected bias and
the already known disparity between
modern ships ' intakes ( warm)
and ocean measurement buoys (cold)
expect a lot of dithering as the
record is massaged in the year to come.As to the Royal Navy, it ultimately solved the problem- behold the wondrous evolution of the New Model Navy Insulated Thermometer Bucket --
Folks:
I am a retired Seismic Surveyor, with experience in Western Canada, the Arctic, and the High Arctic, plus once in the Republic of Niger, and once in Tanzania.
I took air temperature every time I did a Sunshot, or a Starshot.
Now, the theory, about metal, or canvas buckets, causing differences in the water-temperature, is not quite what my own farm-boy experiences were, with water in metal buckets. And I do remember how long it took the olden days big canvas water-bottles, that cooled their contents by means of evaporation of the small part that oozed thru the canvass.
The theory smacks of summat that Snopes is going to shoot down.
By the by, _I_ have taken a sponge bath in -40° temperatures, standing on a scrap of cardboard, on the lee side of the Snow-Melter. Some of the Urb-raised ideas about outdoor temperatures, and how they affect people and things, are wrong....
Posted by: Neil Frandsen | June 02, 2008 at 10:57 PM
It would seem to be an obvious thing to do to take measurements at a few locations, in different temperature and wind conditions, with simultaneous scoops using oaken, steel, canvas, and insulated buckets, plus at the intake ports, and tabulate the differences. That would provide meaningful fudge factors to apply retroactively.
Posted by: Brian H | June 04, 2008 at 12:51 PM
I like your contentions here. Very well said.
Posted by: Hunter Fan | February 28, 2010 at 08:15 PM
You write pretty well! :)
Posted by: pacifier clip | May 02, 2010 at 03:51 AM
global warming has been raised almost all parts of the world that's why some of us participate in the earth hour held every year.
hilary
http://www.eyecream.com/
Dallas Tx,
Posted by: skincare | March 22, 2011 at 11:00 AM