Re: Temperature Record of the Week: Princess Anne, Maryland

In sci.environment Dr. Convection <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
: From:
: http://www.co2science.org/ushcn/stationoftheweek.htm

: USHCN Temperature Record of the Week: Princess Anne, Maryland
: ---------------------------------------------------------------------

: To bolster our claim that "There Has Been No Global Warming for the Past 70
: Years," each week we highlight the temperature record of one of the 1221
: U.S. Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) stations from 1930-2000.

: This issue's temperature record of the week is from Princess Anne, Maryland.
: During the period of most significant greenhouse gas buildup over the past
: century, i.e., 1930 and onward, Princess Anne's mean annual temperature has
: cooled by 0.68 degrees Fahrenheit.  Not much global warming here!

        Only if you ignore the fact that the cooling trend is 
due to warmer sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.


The article below is dated January 15, 2001.  It's not surprising
that the Idsiots at co2science would ignore this particular factum
when dispensing their pablum.


http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0101/17easttemp/


Much of the Earth has warmed over the last half-century, but the eastern 
half of the United States has shown a cooling trend. NASA-funded research 
indicates cooler temperatures in the eastern U.S. are caused by an increase 
in sun-shielding clouds produced by warmer ocean temperatures in the Pacific. 

Walter A. Robinson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 
James Hansen of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and Reto Reudy 
of Science Systems and Applications, Inc. will present these findings in a 
paper entitled "Where's the Heat? Insights From GCM Experiments into the 
Lack of Eastern U.S. Warming" at the American Meteorological Society Annual 
Meeting in Albuquerque, N.M. on January 15. 

Eastern U.S. temperatures have displayed a cooling trend of 0.1 deg. Celsius 
per decade, while global temperatures warmed by that same amount from 1950 
to 1997. The researchers used a computer climate model to see if this 
regional cooling could be caused by changes in sea surface temperature. 
Robinson said that in the GISS model, "Warmer sea surface temperatures 
in the tropical Pacific cause greater cloud cover over the eastern United 
States. This increased cloud cover is directly responsible for the cooling." 
The brightness of a cloud causes a large percentage of incoming solar 
radiation to be reflected back into space, thus keeping the atmosphere 
cooler than if the cloud wasn't there. 

Using the climate simulations, Robinson found the amount of water vapor in 
the Gulf of Mexico follows closely the water vapor released by the warm 
sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. Water vapor from the Pacific 
moves east to the Gulf of Mexico and is then carried over the eastern U.S. 
by the clockwise circulation around an Atlantic subtropical high pressure 
system. When the water vapor arrives over the U.S. it condenses and 
generates more cloud cover, allowing less solar radiation to reach and 
warm the Earth's surface. 

Robinson's research utilized the GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies) 
"general circulation model," which simulates the circulation of the 
atmosphere around the world and used sea surface temperatures from around 
the globe. 

In order to create a focus on sea-surface temperatures in the model runs, 
three components that can contribute to warming or climate forcing, were 
"fixed." These are aerosols (particles in the atmosphere), solar irradiance 
or brightness, and greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide). Because these 
factors were fixed, they can be ruled out as the cause of cooling in the 
model, leaving only sea surface temperatures as a variable. 

The GISS model used ocean temperature data over a 47-year span, from 1950 
to 1997 and looked at global sea surface temperatures in different areas. 
The model used temperatures from 20 degrees north to 20 degrees south, and 
from each of those endpoints to each pole. The only time the model showed 
significant cooling in the eastern United States was when the tropical 
Pacific waters warmed. 

        Jim Acker


*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Jim Acker
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Since we are assured that an all-wise Creator has observed the
most exact proportions, of number, weight, and measure, in the
make of all things, the most likely way therefore, to get any
insight into the nature of those parts of the creation, which 
come within our observation, must in all reason be to number,
weigh, and measure."  - Stephen Hales