I've had a couple of conversations about this. In this context it's usually remarked that satellite observations are well and good, but they aren't worth much without ground truth to calibrate them.
These conversations seem to arrive at the following: this unfortunate situation is largely a consequence of 1) the somewhat anachronistic structure of science and 2) the "impedance mismatch" between the time scales of politics and those of climate change First, surface observations are much less "sexy" than satellite observations, and one can't build a very effective scientific career around them. Second, the political forces that drive government are not greatly impacted by anything that happens on climate time scales, so one can't build an effective public serviuce career on that basis either. Consequently, some blazingly obvious things worth doing (continuing to maintain existing lengthy observation series, for instance) are often left undone. They are undone because it is in nobody's personal interest to promote them, despite the fact that it is very much in the common interest that they be done. If you think this is bad consider observational oceanography, which is more expensive and arguably more crucial (since satellite observations can only tell us about surface conditions) but equally unsupported. We do not have a single instantaneous picture of the temperature structure of any ocean. mt On 3/18/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > http://www.magazine.noaa.gov/stories/mag142.htm > > http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/station_data/ > > > http://groups.google.com/group/de.soc.umwelt/browse_thread/thread/995440e90dc6a9a7/76955ec900e70a63#76955ec900e70a63 > > Is it true that weather station coverage has significantly > deteriorated over the last 20 years (impressive graphic in second link > above)? > > If so, why? > > Wouldn't we want better coverage to get a more accurate and detailed > measure of surface temperature trends? > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of global environmental change. Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not gratuitously rude. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
