>Another Global Temperature Blunder? Or RealClimate Confusion

>On the recent RealClimate thread Mind the Gap!, Rasmus discussed the confusion over global temperature trends. Maybe if he had checked his graphics before he posted them, he might have helped his cause. The mistake:

The second graphic on the RealClimate thread is shown in Figure 1.
http://i38.tinypic.com/ngo6te.jpg
Figure 1

The end of the RealClimate caption for that figure reads: “(click on figures for PDF-version)”. I clicked and was presented with the graphic shown in Figure 2. The link:
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbene/twotemps.pdf

http://i37.tinypic.com/ehwtuh.jpg
Figure 2

Notice a difference? In Figure 3, I’ve shown the two time-series graphs. They are NOT the same.
http://i34.tinypic.com/2rcpspd.jpg
Figure 3

In Figure 4, I’ve shown the two pairs of coverage maps. They are NOT the same.
http://i33.tinypic.com/352ok04.jpg
Figure 4

I discovered the error at 4:31PM on November 25, 2008, then checked to see if any of the 270+ comments made to that time had mentioned it. (No, I didn’t read all the comments; I simply let Internet Explorer search for “pdf”.) In comment 254, blogger Glen Fergus noted the error at 12:14AM on November 25, 2008, but as of the time I found it, they had not corrected it, obviously.

About Bob Tisdale

Research interest: the long-term aftereffects of El Niño and La Nina events on global sea surface temperature and ocean heat content. Author of the ebook Who Turned on the Heat? and regular contributor at WattsUpWithThat.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to >Another Global Temperature Blunder? Or RealClimate Confusion

  1. Anonymous says:

    >Can you point out the differences? The globe on the right seems different because it has been resized to match the images on the left. What else is different?

  2. Bob Tisdale says:

    >Compare top to bottom, left-hand side of Figure 4. The coverage on the top map is much less than the lower map, because the top map appears to exclude the oceans where the bottom map includes them. They are different illustrations.

Leave a comment