From Dr. Roy Spencer:
Latest Global Average Tropospheric Temperatures
(Want to see how the current month’s temperatures are shaping up? Check this out.)
Since 1979, NOAA satellites have been carrying instruments which measure the natural microwave thermal emissions from oxygen in the atmosphere. The signals that these microwave radiometers measure at different microwave frequencies are directly proportional to the temperature of different, deep layers of the atmosphere. Every month, John Christy and I update global temperature datasets (see here and here)that represent the piecing together of the temperature data from a total of eleven instruments flying on eleven different satellites over the years. As of early 2011, our most stable instrument for this monitoring is the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU-A) flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite and providing data since late 2002.
The graph above represents the latest update; updates are usually made within the first week of every month. Contrary to some reports, the satellite measurements are not calibrated in any way with the global surface-based thermometer record of temperature. They instead use their own on-board precision redundant platinum resistance thermometers calibrated to a laboratory reference standard before launch.
Cool.
In more ways than one.
Thanks for the update.
can we have (or is theresomewhere) a direct comparison graph – equally scaled – with all (i.e, GISS, HAdcrut, CET, etc) the major various surface station datasets? and possibly also the SST data?
It would be interesting to note if the satellite data reflects/mirrors any of these datasets…..
is it just me or do other Firefox readers get unformatted pages from wordpress??
I was expecting a plunge at least comparable with 2008 and 1999. In fact from the fanfare preceeding it, I was expecting at to be a real decent dip down comparable with the 1990’s. Seems to be shaping up as a damp squib.
It will be interesting to see how this year responds. La Nina may or may not fade and the North Atlantic is cooling. Curious weather ahead.
Whoopeee! Ever recovered one of the ” on-board precision redundant platinum resistance thermometers calibrated to a laboratory reference standard before launch” to see what it is like after being exposed to the space (and launch) environment for a while? Along with the rest of the electronics? Oh right, after nearly 9 years on orbit without a lab recalibration this data can give you an anomaly to less than 1/100th of a degree?
I wouldn’t guarantee any electronic package to be that good even though I have a nice thermostated pressure sensor I built in 1990 which appears to be within 0.5Hpa after 20 years and ~150,000 hours of operation.
Is it me? Can I detect a correlation to temperature, & potentially sunspot activity, & financial/economic conditions in the west. I can certainly see something for the UK. . Late 1970s, economic hardship & financial disaster. Early 1980s, recession. Early 1990s, recession. Early 2010s upwards, recession? Perhaps not, but perhaps! William Herschel allegedly did win bets on the price of wheat by watching Sunspot numbers! Then again it was probably all that latent heat waiting in the wings with ever increasing levels of CO2. :-)) sarc!
And I’ve posted the preliminary February 2011 Sea Surface Temperature update:
http://bobtisdale.blogspot.com/2011/02/preliminary-february-2011-sst-anomaly.html
Presumably this pattern of getting colder is exactly what the models predicted as a result of global warming?
Will the climate cavalry, including Gore, Hansen, Foster, Romm, Clark, Mashey, Lambert etc ride to the rescue, or just start shooting at each other again?
Always remember: with the warmists who post here, you cannot prove a negative.
If I may ask two honest questions of AGW proponents. These questions are not meant to imply that the AGW theory is wrong, but to assess whether the anomaly measurements can be used to shift perceptions.
For how long would the UAH anomaly need to be at or below zero for you to accept that the AGW theory is incorrect?
How low would the UAH anomaly need to be for you to accept that the AGW theory is incorrect?
It may be futile to consider only a single measurement, but I hope the sentiment is clear. For me, to see UAH go to -0.5C would suggest that there is no overall trend, and I’d be more set against the AGW theory.
Thanks,
D O’L.
I suppose two trillion dollar questions are;
a) Will it continue to drop, and
b) Will it go as low as the 1999/2000 reference?
Is the global mean temperature anomaly going to following the following pattern?
http://bit.ly/bKFwyj
We have to wait and see.
However, I think, the AGW camp is very uncomfortable. Here is what they say:
http://bit.ly/9p2e5m
Dr. Ryan N. Maue’s site, which charts the day to day variations, is pretty interesting, though he doesn’t have time to update it every day:
http://www.coaps.fsu.edu/~maue/jra25/global_temperature_anomalies.jpg
Before I saw this graph I had no idea temperatures varied so much, over short periods of time. Last November’s crash is especially interesting.
Another neat site is the NCEP Gfs 2m Raw Temperature anomalies map. The present tense map, (before they run the model,) has the present tense anomalies in red letters just to the upper right of the map. This one seems to read a bit low, but it gives you a general idea of what the world temperatures are doing, before UAH or RSS come out with any figures.
http://www.coaps.fsu.edu/~maue/extreme/gfs/current/raw_temp_c.html#picture
[ryanmaue: thanks for the plug, i have time to update it now 😉 ]
Didn’t Bastardi predict this some time ago?
What did the climate models predict for this month or year, say ten years ago? What were the models saying twenty years ago for last month? Thirty years ago?
What did Dr. Hansen say back in 1988?
Just trying to keep track of various predictive agents.
1998 is such an outlier (recognizing that it is only 30 years of data) and the ramp up is so great, might there not be another source for this exceptional spike? I read something about a suspected gamma ray burst about a year ago but nothing since. Any information on this hypothesis or other suggestions why ’98 was such a large change in less than a year?
Bill
I was hoping to see the February temperature cool more. Whilst I dislike the cool, I would like to see a prolonged period of cooling to help bring the politians to their senses.
The lack of cooling suggests that the present La Nina is or has bottomed out and that it is not as strong as the 1999 equivalent. The SH should now be cooling and it will be interesting to see how the NH bounces back from a cold and snowy winter.
It will also be interesting to see whether the anomaly climbs back up to and hovers around the 0.2C level (ie., around the 2001/7 average). If we are in for a cooler period as many predict then the anomaly ought not to rise much above the 0.2C level. However, I recall reading that it was particularly cloudless in the Indian and Pacific oceans for some time and this will have resulted in quite some replenishment of ocean heat content. If this is so, then this will drive up temperatures.
I for one would like Anthony to post the sea temperature data at the same time as he posts the global temperature anomaly since one needs to keep both of these in mind when trying to assess the situation.
This year will be interesting!
I guess we can expect a few more negative results with the sea surface temperature just rebounding now:
http://bobtisdale.blogspot.com/2011/02/preliminary-february-2011-sst-anomaly.html
BTW what’s with promoting the AMSU Daily Temperature graph when the relevant surface temp data has been off line since December?
so, since 1980, our temperature has gone up zero?
Very Interesting 😉
As the satellite also measures water content of the atmosphere, is there any planned effort to calculate the atmospheric enthalpy and thus its actual heat content, rather than a relatively meaningless temperature metric?
Well I must have confused AMSU data with this lower troposphere data ? because AMSU does not show -0.02C more like -0.13 to 0.18C. see for yourselves…
Could someone please explain how the PRTs are used in the derivation of a temperature value for the lower troposphere from detected microwaves?
Or, indeed, how the temperature values are derived at all?
So 2011 is shaping up to be the warmest on record – at least this is the spin we can expect the alarmists to put on these figures, either that or a deafening silence.
Completely off topic, Britain’s Daily Telegraph carried the following story yesterday:
“The days of permanently available electricity may be coming to an end, the head of Britain’s power network said yesterday.
Families would have to get used to only using power, when it was available, rather than constantly, said Steve Holliday, chief executive of the National Grid.
Mr Holliday was challenged over how the country would “keep the lights on” when it relied more on wind farms…………………
Mr Holliday told Radio 4’s Today program that people would have to “change their behaviour. The grid is going to be a very different system in 2020, 2030…………………We are going to change our behaviour and consume electricity when it is available and available cheaply.”
Planned ‘brownouts and blackouts’ in the future is now the official policy of the goofball politicians who ‘run’ the UK. This is the worst insanity I have ever witnessed from those forcing us to use ever increasing amounts of expensive, unreliable, green energy.
Anthony, my apologies – I am not smart enough to put this into your tips section.
[ You just read “tips” like any other topic and make the comment at the bottom. -ModE ]
Jay Currie says:
March 3, 2011 at 12:05 am
Cool.
In more ways than one.
Thanks for the update
Cool?? In what way? Despite a strong La Nina, deep solar minimum and negative PDO (or is it?) LT temperatures have only dropped to the average for the 1981-2010 period. Current temperatures are still above most of those recorded in the 1980s and 1990s – and only slightly down on temperatures recorded during the peak of the 1986/87 El Nino .
Unless there is another dip in temperatures this looks like being the warmest La Nina on record.
Jack, this is what Hansen said in 1988:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/13/is-jim-hansens-global-temperature-skillful/
Not even close.