UAH Confirms 2014 Was Not Hottest Year
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/uah-confirms-2014-was-not-hottest-year/
By Paul Homewood UAH have now released their global temperature data for December and, as with RSS, they confirm that 2014 was a long way from being the “hottest ever year”, much touted recently. http://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/data/msu/t2lt/uahncdc_lt_5.6.txt Whereas RSS have last year ranked only the 6th warmest, according to UAH it is 3rd. However, as Dr John Christy points out: http://nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2014/december2014/dec2014GTR.pdf It is commonly claimed that satellite and surface datasets measure different things, and there is an element of truth in that. Whereas surface sets, such as HADCRUT and GISS, only measure the temperature at the bottom of the atmosphere, the satellite sets of UAH and RSS measure it through the whole of the lower troposphere, and therefore must be regarded as much more comprehensive. It is also argued that UAH do not measure sea surface temperatures. However, in terms of global heat balance, the temperature of the sea at the surface is almost irrelevant when compared to that of the entire volume of sea from top to bottom. In any event, increased heat at the top of the sea will always tend to transfer into the atmosphere above it by evaporation, until equilibrium is found. While there is a short lag for this to happen, atmospheric temperature measurements do reflect these changes. It is also worth pointing out that higher sea temperatures can only affect land ones after having also affected the atmosphere. Indeed, according to theory, the global troposphere should warm 1.2 times as fast as the surface. Satellite coverage measures nearly every cubic inch of the lower atmosphere on a daily basis, apart from close to the poles, where of course there is virtually no surface coverage anyway. Satellites are also not affected by the well established issues that surface data has, such as UHI, bad siting, sparse coverage and endless adjustments. The reality is that, despite El Nino conditions for most of the year, the long pause in global temperatures has continued for another year. With the MEI Index suggesting that last year’s El Nino is weakening, it seems likely that 2015 will be any different.
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