World's temperature record to be re-analysed

[Aurora]

The Independent - 25/02/10

The whole of the world's instrumental temperature record – millions of observations dating back more than 150 years – is to be re-analysed in an attempt to remove doubts about the reality of global warming.

The new analysis, an enormous task which will be carried out by several groups of scientists working independently in different countries, has been proposed by the UK Met Office in the wake of recent controversies over climate science, such as the "climategate" email affair at the University of East Anglia and revelations that the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) contained inaccuracies and exaggerations.

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[Andy Hunt]

Can't do any harm.

[RogueMale]

Can't do any harm.

I'd like to think that.

But it could waste a lot of time, if it gives governments an excuse to do nothing until the revised results are out. You'd think that if they think there's even a small chance of runaway global warming, and they know that the later they leave things the harder it will be to prevent, they'd tighten up on CO2 emissions now and, should the results be good news, relax them later.

[biffvernon]

Pouring over over historic temperature records is not going to re-freeze the Arctic Ocean.

[RenewableCandy]

I bet it won't satisfy the "sceptics" either: they'll just say the recount's been organised because "the science isn't sorted yet" or some other crap.

[MacG]

Pouring over over historic temperature records is not going to re-freeze the Arctic Ocean.

You mean the Arctic Ocean is unfrozen right now? Do you have a linky or such?

[kenneal - lagger]

Pouring over over historic temperature records is not going to re-freeze the Arctic Ocean.

You mean the Arctic Ocean is unfrozen right now? Do you have a linky or such?

It's not unfrozen now but the National Snow and Ice Data Center at http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ says

February 3, 2010
Despite cool temperatures, ice extent remains low


Despite cool temperatures over most of the Arctic Ocean in January, Arctic sea ice extent continued to track below normal. By the end of January, ice extent dropped below the extent observed in January 2007. Ice extent was unusually low in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic, the one major area of the Arctic where temperatures remained warmer than normal.

and



and

Slow freeze-up keeps ice extent low

Analysis of data from the last three decades shows that the summer Arctic sea ice melt season now lasts nearly a month longer than it did in the 1980s. A later start of freeze-up and an earlier start to the melt season both contribute to the change. A recent paper by Thorsten Markus at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center suggests that the later freeze-up is the dominant factor lengthening the melt season. The analysis shows that, on average, autumn freeze-up starts nearly four days later each decade. Extensive open water at the end of the summer melt season, combined with warmer autumns, delay the autumn freeze-up. The larger expanses of open water absorb more solar energy, and before ice can form again, that heat must be released back to the atmosphere. This trend is most pronounced in the Beaufort, Chukchi and Laptev seas.

It might never be unfrozen in winter but it is quite likely that it will be unfrozen in the summer relatively soon as somewhere in the site it says that the Arctic sea ice is thinning and becoming younger.