Submit your comments on this article |
-Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
Arctic Sea Ice Underestimated for Weeks Due to Faulty Sensor (But it won't matter, right?) |
2009-02-20 |
Posted in its entirety since Bloomberg links tend not to last long. A glitch in satellite sensors caused scientists to underestimate the extent of Arctic sea ice by 500,000 square kilometers (193,000 square miles), a California- size area, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center said. The error, due to a problem called Glad someone's watching the gummint.... "Sensor drift, although infrequent, does occasionally occur and it is one of the things that we account for during The extent of Arctic sea ice is seen as a key measure of how rising temperatures are affecting the Earth The center said real-time data on sea ice is always less reliable than archived numbers because full checks haven't yet been carried out. Historical data is checked across other sources, it said. The NSIDC uses Department of Defense satellites to obtain its Arctic sea ice data rather than more accurate National Aeronautics and Space Administration equipment. That's because the defense satellites have a longer period of historical data, enabling scientists to draw conclusions about long-term ice melt "There is a balance between being as accurate as possible at any given moment and being as consistent as possible through long time-periods," NSIDC said. "Long-term" doesn't mean "since the 1970's (or more likely 1980's or '90's)" in real science. But what do I know, right? I don't have the blessing of the Goracle. |
Posted by:Barbara Skolaut |
#2 "I know I was speeding, officer, it must have been a case of sensor drift" "Your Honor, the gun fired due to sensor drift of the defendant's trigger finger." |
Posted by: Skunky Glins 5*** 2009-02-20 21:15 |
#1 Global warming is real I tell you. I got the Nobel Piece Prize and an Oscar from Hollywood and my carbon credits--it must be real. This underestimation thing is an Inconvenient Truth. |
Posted by: Al Gore 2009-02-20 18:32 |