That Anomalous Arctic

The stories have been in the news but not necessarily on the front page nor been the newspaper headlines, and they’ve not been the lead stories on television news. But make no mistake. These stories have been around and have become the counter attack to ClimateGate and the not all too surprising follow-up to 2009, currently the supposed warmest year on record.

Now the alarmists claim that since March each successive month has been the warmest ever. And if this trend continues, then without a doubt 2010 will eclipse 2009 and become the new banner record year for global warming. In fact, they already claim 2010 will be unless a deep La Nina develops quickly. But, questions remain. Were they truly the warmest months?

Both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in conjunction with the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) claim that. But, as of late these scientific as well as governmental organizations have lost much of their credibility. GISS under the command of its director, Dr. James Hansen, has become more “govern-mental” than anything else.

In 2008, Hansen had proudly announced that particular October to be the warmest ever. Yet, quickly afterwards busybody bloggers discovered that Russian September’s temperature data had been copied to October’s verbatim. Since temperatures in this Northern region are rapidly cooling, this little “trick,” as alarmists are apt to do, produced the desired results as well as the headlines except those blasted bloggers botched it.

Hansen still claimed that October 2008 was the hottest. He just managed to find hotspots over the Hudson Bay in Canada that conveniently nobody especially busybody bloggers could verify. Hansen apparently seems to be at it again only the part of the planet in question is different.

Many Americans probably believe that it was the temperature in the Eastern and Southern United States as well as Russia that are the climate chaos culprits. While they were indeed hot, they weren’t the fault. One place on the planet was just sizzling, well maybe just a little less chilly, the Arctic. The high Artic that is, specifically the area north of eighty degrees latitude, was according to GISS this June up to four degrees warmer than its long-term average.

The so-called normal global temperature for June is 59.9°F, but because of the high Artic heat it was 1.22° above or 61.1°F. It was so hot, that from space steam could be seen rising over the North Pole. It was so hot, that polar bears were seen sunning themselves on floating icebergs naked. Who knew they could just take off their fur coats.

What’s interesting is that there aren’t any thermometers there. That’s right in the high Arctic GISS just guesses. So, the warming is entirely fabricated. Now, there are lies. There are damn lies. There’s statistics. But in the advent of the computer age, there are computer algorithms that can lie at over a billion calculations a second. In the end as will be seen, a lie is a lie is a lie.

To determine the temperatures of the Arctic, GISS takes measured temperature data from lower latitudes. A mathematical method known as extrapolation can be used to determine values outside a known range. But GISS isn’t just guesstimating here. Instead it’s data manipulation to the extreme. They literally take it to the point of “ex-CRAP-olation.”

GISS smoothes the temperature data using a box that can be as much as 1,200 kilometers in length. Where there are more temperature stations, actual readings overlap, and the weight of any one station is averaged with others around it. So, the effect of any one station is mitigated.

But in areas where stations are sparse, i.e. the high Arctic, one thermometer can really skew the calculations. Using a 250 degree smoothing factor to generate the Arctic temperature “data,” the truth is shocking as well as appalling. GISS has very little actual data above 60 degrees and none above 80 degrees latitude. That four degree temperature Artic anomaly that’s driving this banner year of warming is based on data that simply doesn’t exist.

In fact, Hansen admits that Arctic warming is the main factor in driving global warming. One would think as a scientist he would want to verify that the estimated data was accurate by placing more temperature stations in the region, but Hansen has shown it only the result that counts not whether it’s real. It seems that the alarmists aren’t giving up their old tricks.

Incidentally, Artic ice over the last three years has been returning despite the “warming.” It’s probably because all that extra CO2 is somehow raising the freezing point of water. And while the Arctic ice is still below average, Antarctica’s has been way above normal. Wasn’t global warming supposed to melt both polar icecaps?