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| Science & Technology | |
| How Not To Measure Temperature - part 78 | |
| 2008-12-06 | |
| In my last post, part 77 of “How not to measure temperature” I pointed out that the National Weather Service in Upton NY has a weather station that is way out of compliance due to the way it is setup and the proximity to bias factors such as the parking lot. There are thousands of weather stations across the USA, some run by various agencies. Often we’ll see them at national parks with interpretive displays. This one I encountered in Ely Nevada on my last road trip to finish the Nevada USHCN station surveys was part of an air quality and environmental monitoring program jointly run by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Desert Research Institute (DRI). It is an impressive station with multiple state of the art sensors, solar power, and a datalogger with a satellite uplink to DRI’s HQ. You can look at hourly data from the station at the CEMP DRI website here. It is located about 2 miles northeast of town on government property, Bureau of Land Management land. What is unique about this station is that it has an interpretive exhibit with live data readouts. I applaud DRI/DOE for doing this. As I said, I applaud DRI/DOE for doing this. Taking the effort to make such a wonderful educational display is a good use of taxpayer funds. Except, that is, when they miss one critical detail.
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| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #7 It might be quite funny then as a global depression causes those things to be used less and the sensor data looks like catastrophic cooling! |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2008-12-06 17:11 |
| #6 Not long ago I listened to a guy who looked at all of the global warming temperature data worldwide, and dis some analysis of the sensor sites themselves, not the recording. overwhelmingly the data come from US stations at parts of western Europe. Most of the data comes from stations erected in the past 100 years, with lesser data going back as much as 200 years. Most of the sites outside the US are suspect for continuity and maintenance, but overwhelmingly, the sites with higher confidence levels were built and maintained in some level of proximity to human habitation. No compensation for the data is reflected in the baseline records for urban encroachment, differences in the actual structures housing the collection mechanisms ( paint color, material for the containment box, proximity to other systems like roof tops of buildings with differing roofing materials over time), nor for the encroachment of urban environments. In essence, the fundamental data from which warming trends is extrapolated is corrupt or suspect. Over the years, all those tar roofs, pavement, HVAC systems, smog, all reflective of the disporportionate heat-sink that is an urban environment, has not been correlated into the baseline data. Sounds like convenient oversight doesn't it? |
| Posted by: NoMoreBS 2008-12-06 14:13 |
| #5 It's not REALLY about weather anyway, is it? It's about forcing other people to do and live like you think is best for them. How much energy they use, how big of a house they live in, what kind of shoes they wear, and lately we've even heard rumblings about stipulating what people should be allowed to eat or drink. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-12-06 10:28 |
| #4 The 'close enuf' weather...within acceptable governmental margins of error. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-12-06 07:27 |
| #3 Yes Em, that sucker is detail oriented, ran down Siberian weather stations located next to steam pipes. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-12-06 05:35 |
| #2 Paint your roof white. That will do it. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-12-06 03:53 |
| #1 I think we can reduce global warming simply by reducing air traffic at a few key airports! |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-12-06 02:13 |