2008 Update on Antarctic Temperatures – RSS
Posted by The Diatribe Guy on November 30, 2008
Antarctic Region:
October Anomaly
- Anomaly value = -0.696, in degrees Celsius
- Of 358 total anomalies in the data, it ranks 344th (I’ll bet you’ve all heard about that, right? What? You haven’t? I’m shocked!)
- Of 30 October anomalies, it ranks 30th. Yes, that is correct. It was the coldest month since at least 1979, when the satellite data started.
- October’s anomaly is 0.472 degrees cooler than October 2007 and 0.794 degrees cooler than September 2008
Averages and trends
- 12-month average anomaly is -0.079, which is low, but there have been lower stretches (including earlier this year)
- The slope since inception (January 1979) is -0.0000352 degrees Celsius per month, which corresponds to a cooling per Century of 0.04 degrees
- We can fit a positive trend line going back to a starting point in most periods from a starting point of April 1981 to January 2000. The longest term trend lines are negative and the shorter trend lines are negative.
- There is no significant recent streaks of consecutive cooling or warming stretches over previous year.
- Last 60-month slope = -0.1590, the lowest slope since the period ending April 2007
- Last 120-month slope = 0.1413. This is the lowest 120-month slope since the period ending July 2006.
- Last 180-month slope = 0.0841, the lowest such slope since the period ending February 2007.
- Last 240-month slope = 0.0286, which drops the value to its lowest point since the period ending September 2005.
- Last 300-month slope = 0.0210, which is still bouncing around the same area it has since last December.
Overall trend since 1979 for Antarctica is slightly negative. Now, take a gander at this chart, use your common sense, and then you tell me whether or not the melting of the South Pole is about to doom us all.
NOTE ON THE RSS DATA:One thing that you can see by following the data source link is the particular region of the globe being measured in terms of latitude. It should be noted that the RSS data extends only to -70 degrees latitude, and that the “Antarctic” region referred to above does not extend all the way to the pole. While this is an obvious limitation in the data, it still does not negate the accuracy of the region being measured (-60 to -70). If someone knows a source that isolates the polar regions, I’d be happy to take a look at those as well.
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[...] “Overall trend since 1979 for Antarctica is slightly negative. Now, take a gander at this chart, use your common sense, and then you tell me whether or not the melting of the South Pole is about to doom us all.” “2008 update on Antarctic temperatures — RSS“- [...]
cprs.com.au » Blog Archive » Antarctica: slight cooling in last 30 years said
[...] “Overall trend since 1979 for Antarctica is slightly negative. Now, take a gander at this chart, use your common sense, and then you tell me whether or not the melting of the South Pole is about to doom us all.” “2008 update on Antarctic temperatures — RSS“- [...]
Jeff Id said
Very nice. It looks like the satellites need some new “corrections”. I’m sure the AGW guys will say they predicted this in their models but this time they missed quite a bit.
I think I’m going to make a link post to this.
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Overall temperature trend since 1979 for Antarctica is slightly negative. « UD/RK Samhälls Debatt said
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Bob Tisdale said
I found your graph posted at co2sceptics.com and provided the following comment. They directed me here. Your follow-up note requests other sources of Antarctic temperature data. I’ve provided them at the end. So here’s what I posted at co2sceptics:
###
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t 70S to 60S the Southernmost latitude band for RSS MSU? If that’s the case, your graph would reflect primarily TLT above the Southern Ocean, not the entire Antarctic. Since you didn’t provide a link to the data, it’s tough to verify.
Wouldn’t you be better off using another data set for a skeptical graph of Antarctic temps, like those based on the latest version of Smith and Reynolds SST data (ERSST.v3) for the Southern Ocean, actually 90S to 60S?
http://i35.tinypic.com/s3djds.jpg
Or the UAH MSU data?
SoPol Land:
http://i29.tinypic.com/35bxmy1.jpg
SoPol Ocean:
http://i26.tinypic.com/2nle1yp.jpg
SoPol combined:
http://i30.tinypic.com/ehrp3.jpg
Those data sets state they include the South Pole.
Regards.
###
Joe, the ERSST.v3 based data sets can be found here:
ftp://eclipse.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/ersstv3b/pdo
Don’t let the pdo at the end of the address bother you. There’s lots more there. (Note: There ‘s an obvious error in the NINO data sets down at the bottom of the page. It switches mid stream from SST data to SST anomaly, or it did the last time I looked.)
And the AHU MSU data can be found here:
http://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/data/msu/t2lt/uahncdc.lt
REPLY:
Bob, thanks much for the links. I have bookmarked a number of different resources and links and I will add these to the list. I had actually seen your comment and it is what prompted me to add the clarifying note to my original post on the exact region being measured.
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