Australia’s BOM backs down on warming at Antarctic bases

1 05 2009

From the Australian. (h/t to Andrew Bolt)

Bureau blows hot and cold over Antarctica warm-up as Bureau of Metereology backs down from a claim that temperatures at Australia’s three bases in Antarctica have been warming over the past three decades

With weather stations like the ones below, it might be a bit hard to separate the real temperature signal of Antarctica from your local UHI. I wonder how much more cooling would be evident in the data had the weather stations been placed away from the “living pods”?

This picture on a postage stamp from Australia, celebrating the Australian Antarctic Territory in 1997, may help settle the issue. Note the Stevenson Screen near the “living pod” on the right.

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/cira/RAMM/hillger/AustralianAntarctic.L102.jpg

Here is the larger photo of the first day of issue card, the Stevenson Screen is also just visible above the snowbank in the lower right. Rather close to human habitation I’d say. Looks like its in the middle of a small AHI (Antarctic Heat Island).

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

They have propane heat, apparently:

Here is what Australia’s Mawson Station looked like circa 1956-1957:

mawson_station_1957

And here is what Mawson station looks like today, as of Feb09. It appears they dumped the “living pods”. Maybe a little “urban growth” going on there?

mawson_station_jan-feb09-2

Here’s another picture of a Stevenson Screen close to a building in Antarctica, from the British Antarctic Survey:

[10004058]

Location: Fossil Bluff, Alexander Island
Season: 1994/1995
Photographer: Pete Bucktrout

THE Bureau of Meteorology has backed down from a claim that temperatures at Australia’s three bases in Antarctica have been warming over the past three decades.

A senior bureau climatologist had accused The Weekend Australian of manufacturing a report that temperatures were cooling in East Antarctica, where Australia’s Mawson, Davis and Casey bases are located.

The trend of temperatures and ice conditions in Antarctica is central to the debate on global warming because substantial melting of the Antarctic ice cap, which contains 90 per cent of the world’s ice, would be required for sea levels to rise. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 77 Comments »

Categories : Antarctic, climate data

Name 3 clear signs of the coming Thermageddon

1 05 2009

thermageddon

OK, so my art is a bit tongue in cheek. But it does fit the disaster theme of the topic.

This op-ed piece in the Herald Sun is interesting, because it touches on many of the points covered here on WUWT. This is the first time I’ve seen all these collected in one article in a major newspaper. Andrew Bolt routinely uses material from WUWT, and this is the first time I’ve been able to reciprocate. There are some truly unique points raised by Bolt that are indigenous to Australia that we haven’t discussed here, but they are valid for discussion nonetheless. In cases where we have covered a point on WUWT, I’ve made a footnote link [in brackets] – Anthony

From Andrew Bolt, The Herald Sun

Global Warming Alarmists Out in the Cold

April 29, 2009 12:00am

IT’S snowing in April. Ice is spreading in Antarctica. The Great Barrier Reef is as healthy as ever.

And that’s just the news of the past week. Truly, it never rains but it pours – and all over our global warming alarmists.

Time’s up for this absurd scaremongering. The fears are being contradicted by the facts, and more so by the week.

Doubt it? Then here’s a test.

Name just three clear signs the planet is warming as the alarmists claim it should. Just three. Chances are your “proofs” are in fact on my list of 10 Top Myths about global warming.And if your “proofs” indeed turn out to be false, don’t get angry with me.

Just ask yourself: Why do you still believe that man is heating the planet to hell? What evidence do you have?

So let’s see if facts matter more to you than faith, and observations more than predictions. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 344 Comments »

Categories : climate_change

Mayday – May Day!

1 05 2009

Guest post by Steven Goddard

nsidc_extent_n_timeseries_050109

NSIDC Arctic Ice Extent Just a few pixels from “average”.

May 1st is May Day . “Mayday” is a universally understood distress call signifying that an aircraft or other vessel is headed on a collision trajectory.  2009 Arctic ice extent is on a collision trajectory with normal, which could be disastrous for AGW alarmists.  ”May Day” is an international holiday celebrated on May 1.  In the Soviet Union it celebrated the worker’s “liberation” from capitalism, though they hadn’t yet thought up “cap and trade” at that time.

I have more news to report about the ongoing mystery of why NSIDC shows Arctic ice extent much closer to the 1979-2000 average than NANSEN is to the 1979-2007 average.  It should be the other way around. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 158 Comments »

Categories : Arctic, sea ice

Australian Antarctic Division: Can solar variability influence climate?

1 05 2009

An interesting tidbit from the Australian Antarctic Division (h/t to Trevor Gunter)

http://www.uh.edu/research/spg/AECMBall.JPG

Earth Current Meter in Antarctica: An electric field mill similar to those operated at South Pole was installed at Vostok Station in 1997. A comparable Air Earth Current meter was built in 2002 and will be operational starting in January 2004. High, dry regions with no thunderstorms, such as the Antarctic plateau, are ideal for monitoring the global geoelectric circuit. Additional solar influences on the geoelectric field occur at high latitudes, via the same processes that generate the aurora. In conjunction with Russian and Australian colleagues, we presently measure the geoelectric field at the Russian station, Vostok, on the Antarctic plateau. We have shown that solar variability can influence the geoelectric field measured at ground level in polar regions, and are continuing to develop research instrumentation and methods of testing the viability of a solar variability influence on weather and climate through modulation of the geoelectric circuit.

Scientists have long searched for linkages between solar variability and weather. The sun varies on a wide-range of time scales, most dramatically on an ~11 year cycle which is strongly associated with the number and extent of sunspots on the sun and the occurrence of aurora at high latitudes. While correlations of weather and solar variability have been reported, often-times to disappear when further measurements become available, no viable mechanism for the strongest associations has been confirmed. One difficulty is that the variable solar energy, despite sunspots and aurora being spectacular, is but a small fraction of 1% of the total solar energy. Any mechanism for changing weather and climate by solar variability must involve influencing the distribution of the energy within the weather system. One possible mechanism is via the Earth’s geoelectric field. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 111 Comments »

Categories : Antarctic, Science, solar, space