People send me stuff. My Inbox bursts daily with ideas, suggestions, papers, and photos.
Here is a climate monitoring station in Tremonton Utah. Notice anything peculiar about the placement of the temperature sensor? It is the white “bee hive” on the pole on the asphalt.
Note the conduit for the cable to the MMTS. This underscores something I’ve been saying about the MMTS installation for some time. The COOP managers that install these aren’t given the tools or time to get past obstructions like asphalt and concrete, thus the MMTS ends up closer to buildings than the “wireless” Stevenson Screen.
Randy Julander writes in:
Randy Julander here, snow survey supervisor, NRCS, USDA. Here are a few pics from the Tremonton Utah MMTS site which is right outside our NRCS field office in Tremonton. Normally there is a large truck parked right next to the sensor. As you can see, next to the building, next to the air conditioner, asphalt everywhere. Nice placement.
I’ll say, right on the pavement, 10 feet from the building. Randy mentions a truck being parked by the sensor. It shows up nicely on the Google aerial view:
A live Google maps interactive view is here
Temperature measurement issues aside, I wonder what the wind tunnel between the vehicles does for the accuracy of the rain gauge?
Here is the view looking north showing the parking lot that doubles as a climate monitoring station.
In the photo below, notice how the rain gauge and MMTS have been placed in parallel with the diagonal parking. This is not accidental.
While we have many people who are actively surveying the USHCN network, there are still hundreds of other NOAA/NWS COOP stations that are not part of the special USHCN subset of stations.
There is also the COOP-A network, which is used in climate and the is reported to NCDC, just like USHCN.
Most importantly, these stations are used by NCDC’s FILNET program, which will “fill in” missing data for a single station.
Here’s more on FILNET from NCDC:
FILNET (Fill Missing Original Data in the Network)
Estimates for missing data are provided using a procedure similar to that used in SHAP. This adjustment uses the debiased data from the SHAP and fills in missing original data when needed (i.e. calculates estimated data) based on a “network” of the best correlated nearby stations. The FILNET program also completed the data adjustment process for stations that moved too often for SHAP to estimate the adjustments needed to debias the data.
The B91 for Marysville is shown at left. Note the significant amount of missing data.
This happened because the volunteer observer was the fire station office manager, who didn’t work weekends or holidays, and had vacation throughout the year. Even though the fire station was manned 24/7, unfortunately the firefighters on-duty did not participate in keeping the records.
See a B91 form page from the Marysville USHCN record at left and note the missing data.
COOP-A stations like Tremonton Utah one are used by NCDC’s FILNET to interpolate missing data for nearby USHCN stations. Thus, it is just as important that they also be properly sited and maintained.
It appears though that they may suffer from the same sort of maintenance and siting issues that the USHCN does. After all, other than being a special subset of the COOP-A network, chosen for continuity of records over a long period and a minimum of site moves, there really is no other difference between USHCN and COOP-A stations.
They are all part of the same group and are maintained by the same people using the same tools and methods.
It seems that the sot of problems we see at Tremonton UT are widespread in the entire COOP-A network as well as USHCN. I’ll have more examples in future posts.
Gillian, thanks for the reply.
Oh, boy, ok, here goes the ignorance question of the week…. how do I find those particular WUWT 2008 post dates? I see the calandar that allows selecting dates this month, but don’t see how to go that far back in archives…. I tried a simple search on the date without success.
In general, would you say the CO2 data is reasonable, or seriously flawed? I’m thinking the typical things here, e.g., number and placement of testing sites worldwide and sorts of basic things.
Thanks again!
Hooray! Peter Sissons mentioned the topic that dare not speak it’s name in a mainstream newspaper – Climate Realism.
How about the CO2 measurements?
To get the 2008 figures in WUWT you need to go to the Archives section at the bottom of the right hand side of the page.
Apparently other places in the world keep CO2 statistics, but the IPCC will only use the Mauna Loa figures. Here in Tasmania they are kept at Cape Grim, but I have not seen them – I’ll make further enquiries.
>>>So dark pavement and asphalt are the cause of
>>>global warming.
And not forgetting the truck exhaust too – pretty hot sometimes.
Quick question. I presume it is max and min that is being measured by the MMTS, not an average. Does this mean that if a truck pulls up next to the MMTS and belches hot gas for just five minutes, that this becomes the day’s max temperature? Ditto the aircraft exhaust at an airport site?
Is this how these things work? If so, the measurements could be completely wrong.
How about the CO2 measurements?
You can find the Cape Grim measurements by doing a search on “Cape Grim CO2”
>>>Hooray! Peter Sissons mentioned the topic that
>>>dare not speak.
Sissons is one of the rational old guard who has talent and integrity. He is there because he is good at his job.
In recent years, the new BBC influx were deliberately chosen because they were ‘nice boys’ or the ‘right shade of pale’. They are not there on merit, and so will parrot whatever they are told in grateful genuflection to the great god of the Director General.
It is the new government policy. They hated a meritocracy, as we are all supposed to be equal, so they pushed for a mediocracy instead. We are now plagued by the curse of the average, where those that excel are ruthlessly culled.
.
The curse of mediocracy, part II.
And if you don’t believe me, take a look at UK schools. There has been a deliberate policy in recent decades of identifying all the best schools in the UK (grammars) and closing them down – because we don’t want elitism or selection by merit. Having closed all the good schools down, they are now wondering why (real) educational standards are falling rapidly.
To compensate, they simply made the exams easier, so the exam results looked better (a direct correlation to AGW temperatures here). The government spin-meisters say “rubbish, standards are still high” – but take a look at this UK physics exam for 16-year olds.
http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gcse/qp-ms/AQA-PHY1AP-W-QP-MAR08.PDF
I kid you not – this is the attainment of 12 years of UK education – ‘what is a plastic cup’!!
The entire exam is now composed of wind turbines, solar cells, pollution, radioactive waste, renewables, conservation, geothermal power and insulation.
This is supposed to be a physics exam. Where are the equations? Where are the underlying principles, the foundations of knowledge – the nature of forces, waves, motion, propagation of light, conservation of energy, electrostatics, momentum, vectors? Where is the science? Just where are tomorrow’s scientists and engineers going to come from??
We are lost. Destroyed as a nation. I despair.
Notice anything peculiar about the placement of the temperature sensor?
Yea, I sure do! They put it in what used to be MY parking space!
@Ralph ellis (03:56:28) :
“[…] but take a look at this UK physics exam for 16-year olds.
http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gcse/qp-ms/AQA-PHY1AP-W-QP-MAR08.PDF
I kid you not – this is the attainment of 12 years of UK education – ‘what is a plastic cup’!!
The entire exam is now composed of wind turbines, solar cells, pollution, radioactive waste, renewables, conservation, geothermal power and insulation.
This is supposed to be a physics exam. Where are the equations? Where are the underlying principles, the foundations of knowledge – the nature of forces, waves, motion, propagation of light, conservation of energy, electrostatics, momentum, vectors? Where is the science? Just where are tomorrow’s scientists and engineers going to come from??
We are lost. Destroyed as a nation. I despair.”
I followed the link to the exam. Unbelievable! That wasn’t a physics exam. That was a “Propaganda Pop Quiz” (head shake and heavy sigh…).
ralph ellis – well said. The death of the UK grammar school system is a national embarassment. The dumbing down of education is a national scandal. But then public school education isn’t much better – look at the way the so called Tory Toffs allowed Miliband’s “cap and trade” energy bill to pass without so much as asking one sensible question, the most obvious one being, “where’s the proof?”.
I believe it is the fault of the coop managers when they place their equipment. Mammoth Ranger Station, here in California, just abandoned their CRS located far from any buildings(it is now falling apart and left the sixes high and low thermometers in the shelter but not read) and put in an electronic thermometer right next to a new visitor center and just a few feet from an asphalt driveway. The guy did not want to have to dig a trench any further than he had to.
Re: How about the CO2 measurements?
Try to find the site of German Hans Georg Beck.
h.oldeboom (06:28:05):
Prof. Beck’s website: click
Beck’s site is one of the best interactive sites I’ve seen. Try clicking on the charts, pictures and links and see where it takes you.
Adam (20:10:38) : I would like to look at your question in some more detail.
What is the source of the two graphics?
Does that source have similar graphics for other regions of the US and North America?
‘what is a plastic cup’
Too easy. It is something baseball players wear to cover their sensitive parts.
The transmission of data from these stations should have been done wirelessly, by short-range radio waves, to avoid siting problems. Probably one reason this choice was not made was that the decision-makers were so analytically oriented that they didn’t think of the real-world difficulties that would discourage real-world humans from implementing their ideal-world best-butter design specs. They lacked emotional intelligence and common sense.
After carefull review of the ariel picture, I can see them adjusting the readings upward. The shadows from the trees in the morning will cause lower readings. The afternoon shadows from the brick building will do the same. So when the sun is high, the black asphalt will cause about 8 degrees higher reading when the wind is low on top of which they can add let’s say 6 degrees for shade, and there we have it.
What do the people that form the “consensus” want it to read? That is what we should go by. actual readings are out in the world of the superstitous.
How conscientious of NOAA/GISS. The conduit was run diagonally to match the parking lanes so cars won’t run over it… it also looks like plastic PVC although the color suggest EMT! LOL
ralph ellis (03:56:28) :
“The curse of mediocracy, part II.
This is supposed to be a physics exam. Where are the equations? Where are the underlying principles, the foundations of knowledge – the nature of forces, waves, motion, propagation of light, conservation of energy, electrostatics, momentum, vectors? Where is the science? Just where are tomorrow’s scientists and engineers going to come from??”
Seriously disturbing test. And those that fail? That’s OK, they just put them on track for the Energy Ministry.
Here would be an interesting exercise. Compare this test to ones in Japan, China or India. Should we wonder about the future path of western civilization?
>>Seriously disturbing test (examination). And those that fail? That’s
>>OK, they just put them on track for the Energy Ministry.
Just some background information for non UK readers. We always had simple examinations at 16 years old, for the less academic, but there was a very rigorous exam (‘O’ level exam) for the educational high-fliers. But this exam was ‘elitist’ and ‘stigmatised the less-gifted’, and so it was banned.
So now everyone takes the simple exam at 16, and the better schools (usually private schools) get every pupil attaining 100%. Now an exam where everyone gets 100% is hardly an exam – its a box-ticking exercise.
http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gcse/qp-ms/AQA-PHY1AP-W-QP-MAR08.PDF
In fact, the only people to benefit from this brave new education policy are the privately educated pupils, which is a bit odd for a socialist policy. The private schools still have good discipline and good masters and often choose alternative, more rigorous examinations (the baccalaureate). Meanwhile, all the good government schools (similar to private schools, but free) have been closed down.
As education policies go, this must be the dumbest and most destructive ever invented. (And the most hypocritical, as most of the government ministers came through the very government schools that they have now closed.)
.
Official NOAA employee: “Oh, Oh… I see a patch of grass at the foot of the pole… all is well here.”
I’ve often wondered if the MMTS is shipped as a kit for installation. If the cable harness for the sensors is of a precut lenght, that would explain why MMST is allways so close to a building. A longer harness would allow installation farther away from heat sources.
Just a thought, anyone have info on this?
ralph ellis:
What did Prime Minister Blair say?
“Education. Education. Education.”
Meaning that was their first target, I presume.
What he failed to add was:
“If we can destroy that, they will all be stupid enough to put up with us forever.”
Maybe he only added that after the cameras had gone!
Ralph Ellis: 11:42:07
How right you are.
My old Grammar School physics teacher must be turning in his grave.
So — for sites like this — all that is necessary to drop the temperature recorded should be for someone to go there at night when the parking lot is deserted and quickly paint in a 20 foot in diameter white circle around it. Maybe add a red border around the outside of the circle and paint via a stencil something like “Official NOAA boundary No Parking” in white on the red boundary repeatedly all the way around.
After all, people can do pretty elaborate crop circles over night. Something like this could be done by 3 or 4 people in about an hour. And who could complain? After all, UHI effects are “negligible”, right? So if the sensors suddenly started recording 1 degree F lower (or more) — who could legitimately complain? And since they don’t bother to actually CHECK all the sites – they couldn’t fiddle and make “adjustments” for quite a while — and wouldn’t be able to justify them anyway since the amount by which they applied “adjustments” would be the new defacto admission of UHI effect.