Posted by
m0t0r1zed on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 3:19:50 AM
I'm an AGW fence sitter (neither a skeptic nor a believer), and like to check the NASA site every so often for the monthly temp data because I'm lame and need to get a life. Anyway, it appears that the temperatures for the Northern hemisphere (especially over Russia) have spiked alarmingly in October.
Year Aug Sep Oct
---- --- --- ---
2006 64 70 95
2007 67 62 77
2008 53 51 129
HOWEVER, there seems to be a mistake. Several sites over Russia had the same temperature data from September copied over into October, thus possibly accounting for the very high temperature anomaly.
The climate skeptic sites were the ones to immediately notice it.
So, what to make of this?
First, it is troubling that NASA could overlook such a large error. Luckily, there are other sources of temperature data, so I suppose that the disparity would have been discovered.
Second, this is a good reason why healthy skepticism should not be suppressed. Differing viewpoints serve a useful purpose and force you to challenge your methods, assumptions, and accuracy.
Third, I don't know which side is correct and prefer not to disparage either side (unless I'm being silly and just goofing around). I think there are earnest researchers not motivated by politics engaged in the scientific debate. And who knows? It could be that an improved understanding of our climate may end up incorporating some elements of ideas from both sides.
Anyway, I can understand why the AGW skeptics would take glee at this error since they've been bashed so much by the media and AGW proponents. However, I just find it rather disappointing that NASA could make such a big mistake, and hope that other types of errors are not contained within the rest of the data. People are basing a lot of important decisions upon the validity of their data and models.