World Wide Temperature Measurements

Some of us may wonder who keeps track of the earth’s temperature. This year we had a cool long winter. Other places on earth had above average temperatures. The earth is a big place. In fact, the North American Continent makes up only 4.8% of the earth’s surface.

There are 7,250 terrestrial temperature stations whose data is accumulated by various organizations. These stations are called the “Global Climate Network”. Our National Climate Data Center, (NCDC) makes its home in Arizona State University and is a prominent repository of weather data. Standardization of measuring equipment for this data collection is stipulated by the World Meteorological Organization.

Throughout history, recording weather and linking seasonal weather shifts to a calendar date, has been essential to agriculturally based civilizations. These records have been examined, in detail, by researchers.   Data using modern equipment goes back to about 1850.*  Using this data, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, (NASA) constructed the graph at the end of this column. It starts at 1880 and it shows we are rapidly warming. For the record, the NCDC has data from 226 stations going back 150 years, 1,656 stations going back 100 years, and 3,832 stations going back 50 years.

Oceans cover most of our blue planet. Most people do not realize that the oceans absorb 93% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gasses. ** If the terrestrial stations only monitor 7% of the earth’s temperature change shouldn’t we be concentrating our efforts on the ocean? We are. Today, the most advanced ocean temperature device is the ARGO diving buoys. There are 4000 of these scattered throughout the earth’s oceans. These devices sink 6000 feet down, then rise to the surface taking temperature measurements. When they break the surface, they transmit their data and GPS location via satellite.

In addition to ARGO Buoys, ships have and still do monitor ocean temperatures.    Modern ocean-going vessels need to know the water intake temperatures for their engines. The following is a personal story that highlights this. Ships of the Military Sealift Command, (MSC) are often powered by large diesel engines. The intakes for the engine cooling seawater are closely monitored for engine performance. I remember one trip down the Red Sea from the Suez Canal to Djibouti. The Ship’s Captain was trying to make good speed because there had been a helicopter crash near Djibouti. Our MSC helicopter crews, of which I was member, needed to get within range to launch a search and rescue mission.  The Red Sea, as large bodies of water go, is hot. The sea-water could not cool the engine properly. The Captain had to, reluctantly, slow down. All these sea-water temperature readings are kept for review. Throughout history, our Navy and Merchant Marine has kept records of ocean temperatures. Our professional and scientific military is a data driven organization for good reason. With good data and good data analysis you can make good decisions. ***

Do we have other past ocean temperature data to compare to the present? The answer is yes. This information exists because air and water temperatures were, and are, of critical importance to mariners.  Sea Captains, in the age of sail driven ships, needed to know when and where to sail to avoid the worst weather and capture the best winds.

The reason to accurately analyze seawater temperatures is a little less obvious to us land lovers. During the age of the wind-driven sailing ship the temperature of seawater was watched closely.  Mates were tasked with hauling in buckets of water to measure the water temperature. Why task a sailor to do this? The hot equatorial oceans share their heat with the polar regions via giant currents. Benjamin Franklin may have been the first to write about wise sea captains monitoring the temperature of the Atlantic. When the Sea Captains found the warm waters of the Gulf Stream they had literally found the fast lane to Europe. Much of this temperature data still exists in Captains Logs.

What I am telling you is there is an immense amount of accurate data being gathered by the minute. Five reputable organizations independently receive the data and analyze it via their own methods. They are our NASA, our National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Japanese Meteorological Agency and the United Kingdom’s Met.

These reputable organizations are in basic agreement.  The earth is warming. Despite this unanimity, there has been distrust. In 2010 a famous physicist at Berkley, Robert Muller, decided he would end the discussion. He was able to raise independent funding for the Berkley Earth Institute. Based on this independence and his stature, he and his colleagues pursued just one question, and that was, “Is the earth warming?”

Here is how Robert Muller described the primary mission of the Berkley Earth Institute examining global warming:

“...we are bringing the spirit of science back to a subject that has become too argumentative and too contentious, .... we are an independent, non-political, non-partisan group. We will gather the data, do the analysis, present the results and make all of it available. There will be no spin, whatever we find. We are doing this because it is the most important project in the world today. Nothing else comes close.”

Here is what Professor Muller and the BEI found: “Global warming is real. Perhaps our results will help cool this portion of the climate debate.”

Sorry Professor Muller, in the United States, tribalism trumps science. Over 97% of the scientific community believes you, while only a little over half of the public does.

Graph by NASA  http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/

Note: The vertical line is temperatures above or below average. This shows a rise of 1C or 1.8 degrees F Fahrenheit since 1880. For our whole planet to warm this much in a short period of time is unprecedented.

*Prior to 1880 researchers combine temperature measurements and “proxy” data to compute world-wide Temps.

** Our Great Lakes are warming too, and Lake Superior is warming the fastest.

 *** It bears noting that for each 1-degree C water temperatures rise, our ocean-going fleets will lose 20% of their efficiency.

**** The recent recorded slowing of the Gulf Stream, thought to be caused by global warming, is an ongoing subject of scientific study.