WEBCommentary Guest

Author: Jennifer Marohasy
Date:  March 6, 2015

Topic category:  Climate/Climate Change/Weather

Australian Bureau of Meteorology New Stations "Explain Warming" In Australia
by Graham Lloyd in The Weekend Australian reveals climate alarmists "cook the books" on temperatures.


Jennifer directs our attention to Graham Lloyd's article that mirrors tactics used in the USA:  If Australia were a properly functioning democracy there would already be a huge outcry over the revelations in the Weekend Australian that the Australian Bureau of Meteorology removed 57 stations from its calculations and added 36 on-average hotter stations when in 2013 it developed a new system to calculate the mean annual temperature for Australia. Instead, government officials simply looked the other way.

Almost half of the 20th-century warming for Australia’s national average surface temperatures could be due to changes in the weather stations chosen for analysis, rather than changes in the climate, according to a submission to an independent review of the Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM's) national records.

Merrick Thomson, a retired certified practising accountant, has asked the independent panel to investigate how and why stations were selected for inclusion to make up the national trend.

The panel of experts, headed by Ron Sandland from the CSIRO [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation], will begin its review of BoM’s national temperature data next week, amid growing controversy about the homogenisation of climate records worldwide.

The issue has been the subject of fierce debate in Britain and the US in recent weeks, following the declaration by NASA that last year was the hottest year on record­.

In his submission to the review panel, Mr Thomson said when the BoM transitioned to the new ACORN-SAT system it had removed 57 stations from its calculations, replacing them with 36 on-average hotter stations.

“I calculate this has had the effect­ of increasing the recorded Australian average temperature by 0.42 degrees Celsius, independently of any actual real change in temperature,” Mr Thomson said.

“Of the 57 stations removed from the calculation of the national average temperature, only three of these have actually closed as weather stations,” he added.

Mr Thomson asked that the review panel investigate why the mix of stations changed with the transition to ACORN-SAT, and why this was not explained and declared, particularly given that it has resulted in a large increase in the 2013 annual temperature for Australia.

The BoM has steadfastly defended its treatment of historic temperature records and its management of the ACORN-SAT network. The bureau came under fire last year when it was called to explain why temperature trends at some stations had changed from cooling or slightly warming to more substantial warming after a process of homogenisation to give a national temperature picture.

The BoM, and a number of supportive climate scientists, said adjustments were made to historic temperature recordings for reasons including site moves, equipment changes and after reference to neighbouring areas.

The bureau said a peer review of ACORN-SAT said it had adhered to world’s best practice.

However, similar claims are now being made against climate agencies internationally.

A BoM spokesman said the establishment of the Technical Advis ory Forum to review ACORN-SAT would provide “an independent framework for quality assurance tests and analysis of the bureau’s climate data set and it would not be appropriate to pre-empt this process”.

BoM did not respond to questions about the submission to the review in time for publication.

Jennifer Marohasy
http://jennifermarohasy.com/


Biography - Jennifer Marohasy

Jennifer Marohasy is an Australian biologist who holds unpopular opinions on a range of important environmental issues.

Dr Marohasy has a Bachelor of Science and a PhD from the University of Queensland, worked for twelve years as a scientist for the Queensland government, then six years as environmental manager for the Queensland sugar industry, and then five years as a researcher at the Melbourne-based Institute of Public Affairs. She is currently an Adjunct Research Fellow in the Centre for Plant and Water Science at Central Queensland University.

Dr Marohasy is sceptical of the consensus position on anthropogenic global warming. In her opinion there is no unifying theory of climate, the discipline is in its infancy and there are many drivers of climate change.


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