World temperature records available via Google Earth
Climate researchers at the University of East Anglia have made the world’s temperature records available via Google Earth.
The Climatic Research Unit Temperature Version 4 (CRUTEM4) land-surface air temperature dataset is one of the most widely used records of the climate system.
The new Google Earth format allows users to scroll around the world, zoom in on 6,000 weather stations, and view monthly, seasonal and annual temperature data more easily than ever before.
Users can drill down to see some 20,000 graphs – some of which show temperature records dating back to 1850.
The move is part of an ongoing effort to make data about past climate and climate change as accessible and transparent as possible.
Dr Tim Osborn from UEA’s Climatic Research Unit said: “The beauty of using Google Earth is that you can instantly see where the weather stations are, zoom in on specific countries, and see station datasets much more clearly.
“The data itself comes from the latest CRUTEM4 figures, which have been freely available on our website and via the Met Office. But we wanted to make this key temperature dataset as interactive and user-friendly as possible.”
The Google Earth interface shows how the globe has been split into 5° latitude and longitude grid boxes. The boxes are about 550km wide along the Equator, narrowing towards the North and South poles. This red and green checkerboard covers most of the Earth and indicates areas of land where station data are available. Clicking on a grid box reveals the area’s annual temperatures, as well as links to more detailed downloadable station data.
But while the new initiative does allow greater accessibility, the research team do expect to find errors.
Dr Osborn said: “This dataset combines monthly records from 6,000 weather stations around the world – some of which date back more than 150 years. That’s a lot of data, so we would expect to see a few errors. We very much encourage people to alert us to any records that seem unusual.
“There are some gaps in the grid – this is because there are no weather stations in remote areas such as the Sahara. Users may also spot that the location of some weather stations is not exact. This is because the information we have about the latitude and longitude of each station is limited to 1 decimal place, so the station markers could be a few kilometres from the actual location.
“This isn’t a problem scientifically because the temperature records do not depend on the precise location of each station. But it is something which will improve over time as more detailed location information becomes available.”
This new initiative is described in a new research paper published on February 4 in the journal Earth System Science Data (Osborn T.J. and Jones P.D., 2014: The CRUTEM4 land-surface air temperature dataset: construction, previous versions and dissemination via Google Earth).
For instructions about accessing and using the CRUTEM Google Earth interface (and to find out more about the project) visit http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/crutem/ge/. To view the new Google Earth interface download Google Earth, then click here CRUTEM4-2013-03_gridboxes.kml.
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At last we are getting somewhere with transparency. Well done to the CRU!
So will it now be possible for independent analysts to ascertain if CRUTEM4 is reliable as an indicator or if “warming” has been added lately by reducing pre satellite era temperatures through “adjustments”?
Are those temperature records raw data or have they been, “Hansen-ed”? Is not putting carefully-selected everythings on Google a good way of turning doubtful computer-generated data into accepted truth to underwrite the CAGW narrative? “A lie will be halfway round the world before the truth can get its boots on”. One of Stalin’s favourite sayings just may be the watchword behind this move. CRU has form in this matter.
Top job CRU. Kudos to Dr Osborn and the team. It’s great to see this kind of openness. Given the amount of rain the UK has had lately I wonder will there be a project to get precipitation and wind speed data on there too?
A potentially positive step. I have most of the raw and “corrected” data for the U.S.
I’ll be watching with interest!
As a few others have already touched upon it would be interesting to see if you could run “reports” using unadjusted temperature data wouldn’t it?
Somehow I doubt this data will be available? Hopefully I’m wrong and unadjusted temp data is available but I suspect it’s not.
Regards
Mailman
“the temperature records do not depend on the precise location of each station”
Notice the wording. ‘Temperature records’.
Not temperature, which of course it depends on position, they do not have a system at thermodynamic equilibrium to have the same temperature everywhere. In fact, to have a temperature defined…
I have to say that getting the defendants at trial to put their version of events, verbatim, into the judge’s summation to the jury does seem a slightly strange way of proceeding in climate justice.
The data should only be ‘put out there’ after it is accepted that it is raw data. Sanitised data can only be put out there if it includes all the details of how it was sanitised and how that sanitisation has been justified.
Otherwise, you’ve just got ‘digital warming’ gone mad……..
Peresumably these are the adjusted, sanitised and greenpiss approved temperatures. What’s the point. Let’s see the RAW date. You know, the stuff they haven’t adulterated in the name of CO² tax.
“… the world’s temperature records …”
What the heck does that mean? Will the CRU also provide the adjustments applied to the temperature records per location or cell and actually make this transparent and “open”? Without letting people also see what they have also done to the raw temperature data this is but another huge layer of Global Warming propaganda. No? Well many understand why… because all of the collective adjustments are upward, inversed, and then applied negatively backwards to make the far past reading cooler than the thermometers literally read at that historic time and location. Walla… climatologist-made Global Warming.
If I am wrong on this and CRU used the pre-adjusted records on Google Earth, my apologies in advance, but that will be an incredible first.
Regarding others comments about data adjustment, I also tend to view with suspicion. If unreasonable data adjustment has taken place, it might be fairly easy to find out (in reasonably developed areas at least). Take your local ‘main’ library for example, it may house weather records, or a copy of them. Hence, a bit like the surfacestations project, a number of volunteers could perhaps search for the ‘written’ information and then compare to the ‘official’ record shown on this dataset?
Much as I am sure that many older written records could have been removed (intentionally or not) – I’m also sure that many will remain forgotton on dusty bookshelves!
It should provide access to the raw data at the locations — the specified data stations — where it was collected by specified individuals or organizations. Otherwise, not interested. Don’t be fooled by the illusion of having nothing to hide.
As I read it, Wayne is being a little unfair (quite understandable, given the history of bad faith from warmisti). It seems they are going to put actual weather station records on. If so, well done indeed CRU!
I’ve long argued that, to see if the world is warming, or cooling, or just buggering about, rather than trying to get an “average temperature” which is completely meaningless for all the reasons people on here have said, it is only necessary to look at trends of individual stations. Then any trends can be evaluated, e.g. for urbanisation or other land use changes and obvious causes eliminated. Then, should you wish, you can take the average trend.
Mailman says: February 6, 2014 at 12:44 am
“As a few others have already touched upon it would be interesting to see if you could run “reports” using unadjusted temperature data wouldn’t it?
Somehow I doubt this data will be available? Hopefully I’m wrong and unadjusted temp data is available but I suspect it’s not.”
This is gridded data, so the notion of “raw” data doesn’t really apply. It’s locally averaged, and some kind of homogenisation is likely done; it should be.
If you want unadjusted station data, it’s all on the GHCN unadjusted file.
If you want to see that in a GE-like environment, it’s here, month-by-month. It won’t, currently, pop up a graph, but it will produce the monthly numbers.
Here is the paper.
Fine. Where is the interface definition?
If it is done properly it should be flexible enough to accommodate to any other dataset, including raw temperature data, wind speed, pressure, precipitation, etc.
Therefore this device needs to be published urgently under GPL in a revision control system, otherwise it is nothing but another useless propaganda tool.
“Nick Stokes says:
February 6, 2014 at 1:47 am
This is gridded data, so the notion of “raw” data doesn’t really apply. It’s locally averaged, and some kind of homogenisation is likely done; it should be.”
Rubbish! Stokes stop trying!
Now wait just a multi-decadal minute! Haven’t I seen this P..D…O…. before?????
I disagree. It “appears” useful, to the “useful idiots” (Politicians and the like). Given the screenshot, how many ground based thermometers are there in Australia? I understand it is ~180, of which ~112 are used to calculate a national “average”. LOL its total bullcarp!
Are the figures fudged or unfudged, dare one ask?
Patrick says: February 6, 2014 at 2:00 am
“Rubbish! Stokes stop trying!”
OK, Patrick, where would you expect to find raw data for a grid cell?
Nick Stokes says: February 6, 2014 at 1:47 am
“This is gridded data,…”
Although the top level data is gridded, I see you can drill down to get station data.
Newbie questions about the temperature data.
– The data in the dozen or so stations I looked at are all monthly averages. Is that the data that Crutem4 uses?
– In this paper http://www.nrcse.washington.edu/NordicNetwork/reports/temp.pdf they show computing averages by the minute vs. min/max and get major differences in standard deviations. Is there a standard algorithm that the various stations use? Or does each station “operator” choose the algorithm they use and provide the daily/monthly average to CRU? Do they report the algorithm they use to CRU?
Sorry if this is basic info – links to educate myself would be great.
by using raw data on each grid cell mean!
As the Warmists flood the world with their adjusted, homogenised, gridded data, one is reminded of the switch from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar used today…it was only when people began to notice that Christmas was getting closer to the middle of Spring that the revision took place.
Already there is a strong sense that simply by looking out the window the general public are becoming more and more skeptical of Warmist claims.
“This isn’t a problem scientifically because the temperature records do not depend on the precise location of each station.”
Derp. Lots of small errors combined make big errors