You Ought to Have a Look: Science Round Up—Less Warming, Little Ice Melt, Lack of Imagination

We describe the major changes in processing strategy, including a new method for monthly gridpoint averaging; a new multi-channel (rather than multi-angle) method for computing the lower tropospheric (LT) temperature product; and a new empirical method for diurnal drift correction… The 0.026 C/decade reduction in the global LT trend is due to lesser sensitivity of the new LT to land surface skin temperature (est. 0.010 C/decade), with the remainder of the reduction (0.016 C/decade) due to the new diurnal drift adjustment, the more robust method of LT calculation, and other changes in processing procedures. Figure 1 shows a comparison of the data using the new procedures with that derived from the old procedures. Notice that in the new dataset, the temperature anomalies since about 2003 are less than those from the previous version. This has the overall effect of reducing the trend when computed over the entirety of the record.   Figure 1. Monthly global-average temperature anomalies for the lower troposphere from Jan. 1979 through March 2015 for both the old and new versions of LT. (Source: www.drroyspencer.com) While this new version, admittedly, is not perfect, Spencer, Christy, and Braswell see it as an improvement over the old version. Note that this is not the official release, but rather a version the authors have released for researchers to examine and see if they can find anything that looks irregular that may raise questions as to the procedures employed. Spence...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs