Sunspot Lapse Exceeds 95% of Normal

15 01 2009

A guest post by Jeff Id

Well John Christy gave me a lot to think about in satellite temp trends as far as an improved correction over my last post.  Steve McIntyre pitched in some comments as well.  It is going to take a bit to work out the details of that for me but I think I can produce an improved accuracy slope over my last posts.  In the meantime, I downloaded sunspot numbers from the NASA.

Cycles are interesting things.  There are endless cycles in nature, orbits, ocean temp shifts, solar cycles, magnetic cycles the examples are everywhere.  What makes a cycle unusual is also an interesting topic.  Some solar scientists have claimed that our current solar cycle is not unusual by the record.  They are certainly the experts but recently the experts have been forced to update their predictions for the next solar cycle.

Well, I’m no expert on the sun but I do find the data regarding sunspots interesting, particularly in the fact that we are again in at least a short term cooling at the same time sunspots and solar magnetic level have plunged.

Here’s an article from our all understanding US government.

What’s Wrong with the Sun? (Nothing)

And a few beginning lines.

July 11, 2008: Stop the presses! The sun is behaving normally.

So says NASA solar physicist David Hathaway. “There have been some reports lately that Solar Minimum is lasting longer than it should. That’s not true. The ongoing lull in sunspot number is well within historic norms for the solar cycle.”

Cool picture ……. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 351 Comments »

Categories : Science, solar

Winners announced

15 01 2009

2008-science-winner

As many of you know, the Weblog Awards ended Tuesday. Today WUWT was certified as the winner in the “Best Science Blog” category. The vote totals were unchanged from 5PM EST Tuesday. I had thought perhaps the last minute surges drummed up on Daily Kos and Huffington Post might have changed the outcome, be we persevered.

I’d like to sincerely thank all of you in the WUWT community of readers, contributors, and moderators, for creating (and maintaining) an atmosphere in which this could happen. Thanks also go to many friends who run other blogs and websites whom network and share content with us.

There are two other people I’d like to thank and to congratulate. Steve McIntyre of Climate Audit, who won last year and made a strong third place showing this year. Steve has been an inspiration to me in the last year.

I’d also like to congratulate Dr. James Hansen, of NASA GISS, whom was recently awarded the 2009 Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the American Meteorological Society (AMS).

The award states: The Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal is presented by AMS to researchers making outstanding contributions to the understanding of the structure or behavior of the atmosphere.

I may disagree with some of Dr. Hansen’s methods and findings, but the above is certainly true. Congratulations are in order to him.


Comments : 130 Comments »

Categories : Announcements

The NOAA/NCDC 2008 temperature map shows near normal USA in 2008

15 01 2009

conus-jan-dec-2008

Click for source image

No red dots on this map. The map above appears to be representing Weather Service Forecast Office forecast zones, though I’m not absolutely sure since no reference is included with the map. If so, then each of these divisions is an area where a Zone Forecast is issued for. These are what we see as our regular daily forecasts on TV, Newspapers, and Radio. The map above is from NCDC’s research section and was brought to my attention by WUWT commenter “pearlandaggie”.

Update: It turns out they are “climate divisions” see here with thanks to Basil.

The public hasn’t been widely exposed to the map above. The map below is what was in the latest press release.

Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 138 Comments »

Categories : climate data, weather