By WUWT regular “Just The Facts”
Our newest addition is the WUWT Global Temperature Page, which includes graphs, graphics and animations on Global Atmospheric, Surface and Ocean Temperatures, as well as a summary of Northern Hemisphere Temperatures at the end.
Also, in response to various requests for tutorials, I’ve been compiling a list of all of the potential variables in Earth’s Climate System in this post Earth’s Climate System Is Ridiculously Complex – With Draft Link Tutorial and will add it as a WUWT Reference Pagesonce it is more complete. I am crowdsourcing this list, so if you have any additions, corrections, recommendations, etc. please leave them in comments on that thread.
I have also made a couple changes to Sea Ice Page, adding titles to several of the graphics and testing a new link anchoring function, i.e. you’ll note pink tags like “Graphic 1” next to the first 7 titles. The goal of anchoring function would be to allow WUWT users to link directly to any graph on any of the WUWT Reference Pages, but I wanted to test it out before rolling it out further. What do you think about this functionality? Would anyone actually use it?
Additionally, Dr. Roy Spencer’s UAH Lower Atmosphere Temperature Anomaly Chart found at the top of this post and in the Global Temperature page, has also been added to WUWT’s Atmosphere Page and Global Climate History Page. If you really like to keep an eye on Atmospheric Temperatures it is recommended that you visit the University of Alabama at Huntsville’s Discover AMSU Temperature Page, which offers daily atmospheric temperatures from a range of heights based upon the Aqua Satellite.
If you have not had the opportunity to review the other WUWT Reference Pagesit is highly recommended:
- Atmosphere Page
- Atmospheric Oscillation
- ENSO (El Nino/La Nina Southern Oscillation) Page
- Geomagnetism Page
- Global Climate History
- Global Temperature
- Ocean Page
- Ocean Oscillation
- Sea Ice Page
- Solar Page
- US Climatic History Reference Page
- US Weather History
Please note that WUWT cannot vouch for the accuracy of the data within the reference pages, as WUWT is simply an aggregator. All of the data is linked from third party sources. If you doubt the accuracy of any of the graphs on the WUWT Reference Pages, please note it in comments and try to leverage the extensive Source Guides at the bottom of the Reference Pages to identify the associated source data.
If you have have any suggested additions or improvements to any of the WUWT Reference Pages, please let us know in comments below.
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This is without his permission, so I hope that he won’t mind but the link below is to an answer given by E.M.Smith earlier this year, stating why he views an “average global temperature” as something of a conceit…
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/01/28/uah-prelim-january-temp-may-be-below-normal-globally/#comment-585521
Well the highest global Temperature is about +136 deg F, and the lowest global Temperature, is about -138 deg F, so one could say that the average of the earth’s extreme Temperature range, is about -1 deg F, which is about 60 deg F LOWER than what people claim the true average Temperature is.
I have NO idea, what any of that implies; but I tend to line up with those who say, we have no idea what the earth mean global Temperature is.
I’m prepared to accept that Dr James Hansen’s GISSTemp is an accurate record of GISSTemp.
I’ll even accept that the UEA CRU’s HADCrut, is an accurate record of HADCrut. I just don’t think either of them has anything much to do with what the mean global Temperature of the earth is. And so long as Dr Hansen, doesn’t move all his owl boxes around, or re-position the Weber grills, I’ll continue to accept his GISSTemp plots, as an accurate record of GISSTemp; but if he starts mucking with the system, and turning stations on or off, or changing their hardware, etc, then I would have to become suspicious of the validity of his GISSTemp graphs.
Just a huge thank-you to JTF for getting all these data into the reference pages, and to Anthony for making them a feature of WUWT.
This is such a valuable resource – and now and then, it is great to just look at them …
I love the references. Thanks.
Even IF the average global temperatures could be “normalized” into ONE number which could be believed, what does it say? How do we react to it?
This may not be the place to ask, but I always wonder WHY something exists. I wonder WHY our government is spending sooo much of our money on this. What is the reason? WHY are most of the temperature graphs going up?
I grew up in Seattle; my father always told me not to go outdoors if the temperature ever got up to 80 degrees F — it’s way too hot.
So, now I live in Connecticut and the temp is over 80 all the time. I got used to it….
[snip]
Looking at the UAH satellite temperature curve at the start of the article I see two things wrong with it. First, he uses a 13-month running average to smooth the curve. A running average destroys data and should not be used. A non-destructive and more informative way to look at these temperatures is to use the “magic marker” method – a transparent colored overlay that utilizes the human ability for pattern recognition. The second thing wrong is an erroneous identification of the 1982/83 La Nina as “Pinatubo cooling.” Pinatubo cooling stayed in the stratosphere and had no influence on the tropospheric temperature as he imagines. It did not even start until two years after the eruption. This misidentification started with Self et al. who had no idea what satellite temperature oscillations actually mean and thought that the temperature dip was due to volcanic cooling overriding an El Nino warming at that point.That of course is pure nonsense but it keeps being repeated ad nauseam by people who do not understand the temperature oscillations in the satellite record. Roy Spencer who creates the data apparently does not understand it either. The Pinatubo story is fully explained on pages 17 to 21 of my book “What Warming?” All the temperature curves in that book also use the magic marker method which makes otherwise hard to recognize features jump out at you. If you don’t use that method you are not making maximum use of the available temperature data.
Arno, I really don’t understand your point. The UAH data (which I assume has been correctly stated) shows a definite increase from its inception. I would “trust” that data before the land or sea based temperature thermometers. Your book “What Warming” suggests (among other things) that there has been no warming of the earth since 1979. Even Phil Jones has stated thet there has been no “statistically significant” warming since 1998.
I think you are all twisting straws in the wind. Even if there has been warming, it is not enough for me to agree that our government should spend $billions to “correct” it.
Instead, I say, lets study the atmospheric processes until the point at which we are at least aware of the general characteristics and then, if needed, take appropriate actions. I can withstand at least a five degree avarage increase (as stated in my last post), and I’ll bet the earth systems can too. But, as it is going now, we will have to wait for a few hundred more years to find out.
btw, with the heat wave penetrating the USA right now, I’ll bet the CAGW crowd can’t wait to say that we’ve waited too long already!
On the “Home Page” format of WattsUpWithThat, request you add two fixed “titles” or labels immediately above the two links to the “Next” and “Earlier” threads: Earlier + Later. Next Thread + Previous Thread. Back + Next? Just something to indicate chronological direction will help.
While paging back and forth, it is now too easy to get mixed up and lose time paging back and forth looking for a specific title. This is particularly true for threads that have more than a few days old – a few hours old – considering how many more threads Anthony puts up recently!
racookpe1978 says:
July 20, 2011 at 4:31 pm
That’s one reason why I created the monthly summaries in my Guide pages. Start there (that has a two week summary) or go to http://home.comcast.net/~ewerme/wuwt/monthly.html
I only list the stories’ title, that’s a bit problematic when someone goes excessively cute with the title. However, I find my lists useful grazing. Your grazing habits may vary.
The objective, according to GISS scientists, is to provide an estimate of temperature change that could be compared with predictions of global climate change in response to atmospheric carbon dioxide, aerosols, and changes in solar activity.
But the global temperature mainly depends on how much energy the planet receives from the Sun and how much it radiates back into space—quantities that change very little. The amount of energy radiated by the Earth depends significantly on the chemical composition of the atmosphere, particularly the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.