New Zealand on the fiddle too

6 Dec 2009

This anomally chart reckons to show that NewZealand temperature has been rising at an unprecedented rate lately. It is based on what climatologists call "value-added" data




The anomaly chart below shows the "raw" temperatures. Eyeballing it I don't think one can perceive anything much at all happening to New Zealands temperature. The trend of 0.06 degree centigrade per century since 1850 is statistically insignificant.




New Zealand's chief Scientist (Climate) Dr David Wratt of NIWA is an IPCC hack, too - coordinating Lead Author of the “Australia and New Zealand” chapter of the IPCC Third Assessment Report. How cosy this tiny group which we are supposd to believe is representative of a world-wide consensus of thousands of scientists is proving to be.

I think those thousands must include, wives, children, domestic servants and pets, too, don't you?

.......

Back before Climategate even began Dr. Phil Jones at one point stated that the CRU had “lost” the “raw” data they had collected during the move into their new building back in the 1980’s. This spawned the story the “Dog ate the Data” across the Blogosphere and turned up again when Climategate broke.

At that time a New Zealand group called the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition (NZCSC) looked at the raw temperature records for their country and found that the temperatures were flat and that the warming trend shown in the graphs published by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) was all due to adjustments NIWA did.

At that time a FOI request was put in to see why and when these “adjustments” were made. Now two months later the NZCSC states that NIWA has been forced to admit they lost the records of how and when the adjustments were made. You can get the details and the NZCSC press release here:

TBR.cc: BREAKING NEWS: NIWA reveals NZ original climate data missing.
http://briefingroom.typepad.com/the_brie....a-missin g.html

What makes this story even more interesting is that until this year (April) the head of NIWA was a Dr. Jim Salinger who was let go by NIWA for repeatedly violating NIWA policy. Goodness me! Whatever did he do to get sacked? I guess the sacking of a chief climatologist is virtually unheard of.

http://www.niwa.co.nz/news-and-publicati....oyment-decision

The interesting thing about Dr. Salinger is that prior to going to work for NIWA he was a member of Dr. Joneses CRU and he appears in the Climategate emails. Strange how data goes missing where ever these CRU boys work.

Thanks to boballab here
http://boballab.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/the-goat-ate-the-data/

........

Salinger sacking He is reported to have been sacked for ignoring a new Niwa policy against speaking publicly without prior approval. "I can't understand it, it's not as though I'm doing bad science, it's not as though I'm under-performing, so I'm really astounded," Dr Salinger said on TV One News tonight. TV One said Niwa had accused Dr Salinger of serious misconduct after he took part in a programme the channel produced about glaciers. The Green Party said Dr Salinger was dismissed earlier this week for helping TVNZ weatherman Jim Hickey with climate-related inquiries. The scientist has frequently appeared in TV climate reports and has spoken in the media about climate change. Greenpeace said it wanted answers from Niwa and the Government. "Dr Salinger has done some amazing work to educate New Zealanders about climate change and he is highly respected internationally," said Greenpeace senior climate campaigner Simon Boxer. "He was very clear about the need for urgent climate action in New Zealand." April 2009 http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/2361900/Niwa-sacks-Jim-Salinger One must be grateful for every small victory over the IPCC juggernaut. ....... NIWA Unable To Justify Official Temperature Record Monday, 1 February 2010, 4:02 pm Press Release: New Zealand Climate Science Coalition http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC1002/S00004.htm Now, a news release from the Climate Science Coalition is blowing the NIWA climate scientists out of the water. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) has been urged by the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition (NZCSC) to abandon all of its in-house adjustments to temperature records. This follows an admission by NIWA that it no longer holds the records that would support its in-house manipulation of official temperature readings. In December, NZCSC issued a formal request for the schedule of adjustments under the Official Information Act 1982, specifically seeking copies of “the original worksheets and/or computer records used for the calculations”. On 29 January, NIWA responded that they no longer held any internal records, and merely referred to the scientific literature. “The only inference that can be drawn from this is that NIWA has casually altered its temperature series from time to time, without ever taking the trouble to maintain a continuous record. The result is that the official temperature record has been adjusted on unknown dates for unknown reasons, so that its probative value is little above that of guesswork. In such a case, the only appropriate action would be reversion to the raw data record, perhaps accompanied by a statement of any known issues,” said Terry Dunleavy, secretary of NZCSC. “NIWA’s website carries the raw data collected from representative temperature stations, which disclose no measurable change in average temperature over a period of 150 years. But elsewhere on the same website, NIWA displays a graph of the same 150-year period showing a sharp warming trend. The difference between these two official records is a series of undisclosed NIWA-created ‘adjustments’. “Late last year our coalition published a paper entitled ‘Are We Feeling Warmer Yet?’ and asked NIWA to disclose the schedule detailing the dates and reasons for the adjustments. The expressed purpose of NZCSC was to replicate the calculations, in the best traditions of peer-reviewed science. “When NIWA did not respond, Hon Rodney Hide asked Oral and Written Questions in Parliament, and attended a meeting with NIWA scientists. All to no avail, and the schedule of adjustments remained a secret. We now know why NIWA was being so evasive - the requested schedule did not exist. “Well qualified climate scientist members of our coalition believe that NIWA has forfeited confidence in the credibility of its temperature recording procedures, and that it cannot be trusted to try to cover up its own ineptitude by in-house adjustments. What is needed is open access in the public domain to all of the known reasons for post-reading adjustments to enable independent climate analysts to make their own comparative assessments of temperature variations throughout New Zealand since the middle of the 19th century,” said Mr Dunleavy. I kid you not, you could write a book about these shenanigans. NIWA - National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NZ) 00000000000000 NIWA sued over data accuracy 15 August 2010 The country's state-owned weather and atmospheric research body is being taken to court in a challenge over the accuracy of its data used to calculate global warming. The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition said it had lodged papers with the High Court asking the court to invalidate the official temperatures record of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa). The lobby of climate sceptics and ACT Party have long criticised Niwa over its temperature data, which Niwa says is mainstream science and not controversial, and the raw data publicly available. The coalition said the New Zealand Temperature Records (NZTR) were the historical base of NIWA's advice to the Government on issues relating to climate change. Coalition spokesman Bryan Leyland said many scientists believed although the earth had been warming for 150 years, it had not heated as much as Government archives claimed. He said the New Zealand Meteorological Service had shown no warming during the past century but Niwa had adjusted its records to show a warming trend of 1degC. The warming figure was high and almost 50 percent above the global average, said Mr Leyland. The coalition said the 1degC warming during the 20th century was based on adjustments taken by Niwa from a 1981 student thesis by then student Jim Salinger, a Niwa employee who was later sacked after talking to the media without permission. The Salinger thesis was subjective and untested and meteorologists more senior to Dr Salinger did not consider the temperature data should be adjusted, it said. The coalition would ask the court to find Niwa's New Zealand Temperature Record invalid. It would also seek a court declaration preventing Niwa from using the NZTR when it advised the Government or any other body on global climate issues. It would also ask the court to order Niwa to produce a full and accurate NZTR. Mr Leyland said Niwa was refusing to repudiate the NZTR to avoid political embarrassment and loss of public confidence. A substantive hearing was expected later this year. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4026330/Niwa-sued-over-data-accuracy