Don’t know if this thread will get an eyeball on it, but it was linked by today’s (September 13) thread. A late thanks for your work on this, and a question about this interesting PP show. After reading the article you posted by John Christy about the effects of humidity on temperature, I wondered if there was any long-term effort under way to study the two data streams in conjunction.

Grant Goodge’s PP shows a picture of the innards of a primary weather station, which apparently took a dew point and relative humidity reading with two “matched” thermometers situated beneath the air intake duct, one of whose bulbs is swathed in a patch of cloth. I don’t know a lot of science relative to this procedure, but I was curious if this is the way it is still done, or whether the new mechanisms have any provisions for taking humidity readings at all. It didn’t appear that they do.

Again, from what I could gather of Christy’s study, it was apparent that fluctuating humidity levels had a rather profound affect on temperature. So, don’t they take the two data streams in conjunction? If not, why not?

Thanks. I know you’re busy.

REPLY: doubtful

The less emissivity the more accurate the air temperature measurement, so why white paint? Maintenance issues?

Hmm seems a while back moshpit suggested dropping all the CRN5.
15% of 1220 is about 180. I wonder which 200 they will cut

Thanks for answer on old stations. I doubt that picture is Silver Springs MD, having been there I doubt the Blue Ridge is close enough to have that view.

Jerry

– How close to the poles can these survive with limited daylight in winter?
– How often will the batteries have to be changed?
– Do blizzards or aurora borealis affect the GOES transmissions?
– If the transmission fails, will it keep the data until the next transmission time?
– Since Iqaluit in Nunavut Canada can have 8 day blizzards, how many readings can these stations hold before running out of space?

John M Reynolds

In fact, if you read blog comments and notice which people say it’s a warm spring vs a cool spring– ask where they live. You may be amazed at the correlation with the warm and cold anomalies in the ocean right now.

That said: I do share reservations about accuracy of measurement records. Maintenance is not always a high priority in most countries.

“–If there is no need for adjustment, that means there is no need for FILENET.
–And if there is no need for FILENET, there is no need to fill in data.
–And if there is no need to fill in data, the collection and transmission therefore must be automated.”

I’ve been mightily impressed at how hard it is to get a gap-free record from my Davis Vantage Pro. That wasn’t a primary goal behind it, nor was my installation, but I don’t expect to get a full year’s set of data, either.

The main issues I have are:

Interference on RF link.
The VP uses the same band as some of the cordless phones in the house. The new model uses frequency hopping to greatly improve that, so I hear.

RF range.
My computer is at one corner of the house, the sensor unit has to transmit through the diagonal and a ways outside. I wound up buying a second console and use its repeater functionality to get a more reliable signal. However, I don’t know if it transmits on a different schedule, but I don’t get the long runs of 95+% reception I did before when the transmission path had the blessings of the gods and noise sources.

Solar charger + supercap doesn’t handle November.
I’ve sort of gotten in the habit of replacing the battery every October.

Davis is in the SF Bay area.
They don’t understand how leaf stems and icicles can interfere with the tipping bucket in the rain guage.

USHCN-M will have some problems and gaps. Gaps may be relatively long when they occur, e.g. a bear using one for a back scratcher, lightning-fried-electronics, satellite failure, e.g.

Certainly a big step forward and opens up a lot of sites where it’s difficult to get volunteers now because no one lives there and there’s no UHI to be had for decades.

Also, with the changes in data gathering, it seems like the sensors could be ‘live’. That is, post the data directly somewhere as it gets reported. Make it _completely_ transparent.

A lot of questions I know.
I just wonder how Hansen will be able to continue to “fudge” data and always be the odd man out when there are accurate counter data. Fudging is easy when the data is inaccurate, but very difficult when it’s precise.

I hope I’m not confusing the different measuring systems that seem to exist and overlap.

REPLY: I’ll revisit this later, larger news looms

If one wishes to see warming, one will be more inclined to believe data that validates that wish. What if the US stations show no warming but the inclusion of Asian stations still causes continued warming due to urbanization and land use changes? Remember that March was hailed as the “warmest month ever” even though there was no warming anywhere but Asia. Just that the recorded temperatures in Asia rose enough to raise the entire global average.

REPLY: For now, US only, but as usually happens, ROW follows is a few years. Slow, and some poorer countries in upheaval may never do it. Cross off Zimbabwe, Sudan, and the like unless maybe we can convince the U.N. to set up stations…yeah that’s the ticket. Blue Helmet weather stations.

I said I’d wait until I saw a photo of it.

Wowsers!

I will wait for confirmation on this!

REPLY: It could also be Silver Spring, MD, waiting for ID now.