Satellites misreport climate data for years

Scientists have been warning about global warming and its serious effects, but some people just will not believe it.

They have been pointing to a particular satellite temperature dataset that seemed to show there had been no change in temperature levels in the past 18 years. But the non-believers have lost this argument. It was found that this dataset was wrong, and the error has been corrected.

The Remote Sensing System temperature data now showed there had, in fact, been slight warming since 1998.

Carl Mears is the scientist who runs this temperature data tracking system. He said, “There are people that like to claim there was no warming; they really can’t claim that anymore.”

The change resulted from an adjustment Mears made to fix a nagging discrepancy in the data from 15 satellites.

Some of the satellites drift a bit, which changes their afternoon and evening measurements slightly.

Three satellites that stayed in the proper orbit provided guidance for adjustments.

Experts responded differently to the revelation of the data error.

Some said this supported their own study that there actually is global warming. Others, like Chip Knappenberger of the Cato Institute, simply say this shows “how messy the procedures are in putting the satellite data together”.

(This article is published on Junior Standard on 10 March 2016)

Global warming controversy
http://goo.gl/Hz9fF6

UN: tackling climate change
www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/climate-change