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Sunday, February 24, 2013

February 6, 2013 - weather data

Today's Photos and Videos taken at Fresh Pond Reservation in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Instrumental termperature record

Measuring climate change without a thermometer

RealClimate

History of the National Weather Service

Weather Data:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cmb-faq/temperature-monitoring.html http://www.isws.illinois.edu/pubdoc/CR/iswscr2011-02.pdf

Abstract

The Climate Database Modernization Program’s (CDMP) Forts and Volunteer Observer Database Project has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of U.S. daily cooperative network observations available prior to 1893. Currently, data from 395 stations have been captured from the original scanned images. The stations are primarily located east of the Mississippi River, but coverage extends to all 48 contiguous U.S. states and Alaska. A rigorous quality control process is used to ensure that the keyed data matches the original form. This process involves careful collection of the metadata from the form, double-keying of the data, and a series of automated quality control tests. Values flagged by these tests are typically verified manually and corrections are applied as needed, although in some cases errors are automatically corrected.

An analysis of the quality control process for 40 stations shows that on average, about 31 percent of the flags verify the information, 52 percent can be corrected, and 17 percent are deemed uncorrectable. The correctable errors typically result from unclear forms, mis-keyed data, and errors in the metadata for the image. Due to changes in observation practices since the nineteenth century, care must be taken in using the data for analysis. Despite these caveats, the nineteenth century weather dataset is being used in an increasing number of climate studies.

"...we are changing global chemistry. CO2 affects soil and sea pH. We are acidifying our oceans. The food chain of the seas starts with very small creatures called zoanthids which in turn feed corals and filter feeders. These are calcium carbonate based life forms, they depend on a stable, relatively high pH to maintain and build shells. Corals provide habitat for fish and other animals that feed half a billion people worldwide. Add to this mix all shell fish which feed many more and you are talking about something much more serious. Not only will agriculture and soil based food production be seriously affected, but sea food and related products will be too. It doesn’t take much CO2 to dissolve calcium carbonate shells and kill or reduce shellfish and in turn, fish ecosystems. Already this is being observed in places known for shellfish like Puget Sound, where in some places clam and oyster ‘seedlings’ have very high mortality due to dissolving shells due to CO2 driven low pH." http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/02/winter-warming-accelerated-since-1970/#comment-658968

Airplane contrails and temperature


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