Deja Vu All Over Again: Blogger Again Finds Error in NASA Climate Data [Sept data used for October]

DailyTech ^ | November 11, 2008 | Michael Asher

[Mike Fieschko]

GISS's October Data. The large reddish-brown area in Russia is actually September readings.

Amateur team finds NASA error similar to one they discovered a year ago.

NASA'S Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is one of the world's primary sources for climate data. GISS issues regular updates on world temperatures based on their analysis of temperature readings from thousands of monitoring stations over the globe. GISS' most recent data release originally reported last October as being extraordinarily warm-- a full 0.78C above normal. This would have made it the warmest October on record; a huge increase over the previous month's data.Those results set off alarm bells with Steve McIntyre and his gang of Baker Street irregulars at Climateaudit.org. They noted that NASA's data didn't agree at all with the satellite temperature record, which showed October to be very mild, continuing the same trend of slight cooling that has persisted since 1998. So they dug a little deeper.

McKintyre, the same man who found errors last year in GISS's US temperature record, quickly noted that most of the temperature increase was coming from Russia. A chart of world temperatures showed that in October, most of Russia, the largest nation on Earth, was not only registering hot, but literally off the scale. Yet anecdotal reports were suggesting that October was actually slightly colder than normal. Could there be another error in GISS's data?

An alert reader on McKintyre's blog revealed that there was a very large problem. Looking at the actual readings from individual stations in Russia showed a curious anomaly. The locations had all been assigned the exact temperatures from a month earlier-- the much warmer month of September. Russia cools very rapidly in the fall months, so recycling the data from the earlier month had led to a massive temperature increase.

A few locations in Ireland were also found to be using September data.

Steve McKintyre informed GISS of the error by email. According to McKintyre, there was no response, but within "about an hour", GISS pulled down the erroneous data, citing a "mishap" and pointing the finger of blame upstream to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration (NOAA).

NOAA's Deputy Director of Communications, Scott Smullens, tells DailyTech that NOAA is responsible only for temperature readings in the US, not those in other nations.

The error not only affected October data, but due to the complex algorithm GISS uses to convert actual temperature readings into their output results, altered the previously published values for several other months as well. The values for August 2008, for instance, changed by 0.11C and the global anomaly as far back as 2005 increased by a hundredth of a degree.

GISS is run by Dr. James Hansen, a strident global warming advocate who has accused oil companies of "crimes against humanity".  Hansen recently made headlines when he travelled to London to testify on behalf of a group of environmentalists who had damaged a coal plant in protest against global warming. Hansen also serves as science advisor to Al Gore.

Dr. Hansen could not be reached for comment.

[pissant]

No error. It was a purposeful deceit.

[americanophile]

Funny, I don’t recall seeing any errors in the global cooling direction. Curious. It’ not unlike our voting recounts...only the Democrat candidate ever comes up with “new” votes.

[Sherman Logan]

They never seem to make errors in data crunching that show temperatures to be colder.

Wonder why?

[The Great RJ]

In face of increasing scientific evidence that global cooling is now occurring, the global warming apologists will do anything to bolster their theory including altering the data to fit...its been going on that way since the famous “hockey stick” graph, the holy grail of global warming cultists, was shown to be a deliberate distortion of the facts.

[Doug4McCain]

Doesn’t NASA believe in telling the truth anymore?

Dr. Hanson should be imprisoned for fraud.

[savedbygrace]

Dr. Hansen could not be reached for comment.

His likely comment? "Curses, foiled again!"

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

If possible, even if using incomplete real data, if someone could redo the colors on the map, to the correct colors, to have a contrast with the erroneous map, it would be striking.

[BigMacGOP]

“And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you meddling kids...”

Zoynks!

[Paladin2]

It’s the October Surprise.

[auboy]

Jeez. No wonder it was so hot.

[kempo]

You will never see this on network news. Never!

[weegee]

September data used for October. That’s just daylight savings time 2.0.

[Pearls Before Swine]

They never seem to make errors in data crunching that show temperatures to be colder. Wonder why?

I think its some sort of underlying immutable law, like the one which forces all vote recount adjustments to favor the Democratic candidate.

[kempo]

“Doesn’t NASA believe in telling the truth anymore?”

NASA believes in getting government funding and anything with global warming attached to it gets big bucks!

[Sherman Logan]

Yup. I’ve never seen a recount move in the GOP direction.

[Robert A Cook PE]

The error “might” have been a legitimate error - Hansen is so rigid and politically motivated with all other data and statements that form the parts of his zealous “mission to convert the earth” that he would NOT be checking himself or expecting an error when/if he (or his underlings) makes a mistake that shows temperatures are HOTTER.

(Note that if the mistake had shown a negative or lower temperature, Hansen would have been all over it immediately.)

However .... This DOES demonstrate that Hansen’s basic, fundamental “scientific methods and practices” as head of GISS is fatally flawed and politically motivated.

[denydenydeny]

No error. It was a purposeful deceit.

It really looks that way. And it's on the basis of such "data" that our entire economy will be restructured.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Watts Up With That” - and several other AGW websites are reporting that many stations in Denmark AND England are duplicated as well.

It is NOT just Russian stations that were falsified in Hansen’s GISS report for October.

[olezip]

GISS is run by Dr. James Hansen, a strident global warming advocate who has accused oil companies of "crimes against humanity". Hansen recently made headlines when he travelled to London to testify on behalf of a group of environmentalists who had damaged a coal plant in protest against global warming. Hansen also serves as science advisor to Al Gore.

What an innovative idea! You use actual data, but slip it a month or two to get the desired result! This is very embarrassing to NASA I would think. Hansen already has a reputation for bias. Given that Dr. Hansen has a vested interest in man-made global warming, you would think that his organization would error in the opposite direction once in a while. But then again Hansen supports a hoax and an insane man, Al Gore, IMO.

Could it be "birds of a feather?"

It is not possible for our incoming administration to make sure that climate scientists supporting the hoax are not paid to prove global warming is caused by man and not the Sun. Indeed having a vested interest in man caused global warming is a requisite to speak authoritatively on the subject. It is nothing more that idolatry.