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Using Naval Logbooks To Reconstruct Past Weather and Predict Future Climate
Lasrick writes: What a great idea: the Old Weather Project uses old logbooks to study the weather patterns of long ago, providing a trove of archival data to scientists who are trying to fill in the details of our knowledge about the atmosphere and the changing climate. "Pity the poor navigator who fell asleep on watch and failed to update his ship's logbook every four hours with details about its geographic position, time, date, wind direction, barometric readings, temperatures, ocean currents, and weather conditions." As Clive Wilkinson of the UK's National Maritime Museum adds, "Anything you read in a logbook, you can be sure that it is a true and faithful account."
The Old Weather Project uses citizen scientists to transcribe and digitize observations that were scrupulously recorded on a clockwork-like basis, and it is one of several that climate scientists are using to create "a three-dimensional computer simulation that will provide a continuous, century-and-a-half-long profile of the entire planet's climate over time" — the 20th Century Reanalysis Project. Data is checked and rechecked by three different people before entry into the database, and the logbook measurements are especially valuable because they were compiled at sea.
The Old Weather Project uses citizen scientists to transcribe and digitize observations that were scrupulously recorded on a clockwork-like basis, and it is one of several that climate scientists are using to create "a three-dimensional computer simulation that will provide a continuous, century-and-a-half-long profile of the entire planet's climate over time" — the 20th Century Reanalysis Project. Data is checked and rechecked by three different people before entry into the database, and the logbook measurements are especially valuable because they were compiled at sea.
All of this data is useless.
Faithful, yes, but if he didn't know how to navigate, how 'true' can they be? Eh, not to worry, chances are nobody would ever find those logs anyway, if you get my drift...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
"Anything you read in a logbook, you can be sure that it is a true and faithful account."
Says someone who never stood watch in the Navy.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
The climate freaks would be much more credible if their backcasted models matched historical observations. This way they wouldn't have to waste our time.
I don't think navigation on the ocean was very forgiving before modern electronics. And I gather you still do it the old fashioned way as a back up, in case you ever find yourself without them.
I saw a documentary on a US Navy Aircraft Carrier, it had a relevant incident. The carrier has GPS, LORAN, inertial navigation, etc. Yet every day a sailor steps outside the bridge with a sextant and takes readings on the horizon and sun. (does another sailor do so at night with the stars?). He then goes inside and using a WW2 manufactured mechanical chronometer calculates the position of the ship. When asked why the Navy still uses such ancient mechanical technology the sailor replied that this ship is a warship and is expected to be where it needs to be regardless of whether the fancy electronics is working or not.
wrong..... plenty of people give a shit, so unless you can provide compelling evidence that global warming is not happening - man made or otherwise - stop spreading your bullshit or get it published in a peer reviewed journal instead of here.
Don't we already know the average temperature of the planet to better than a tenth of a degree back to the 1890's?
at the bottom of the classic slashdot homepage.
9.5 out of 10 on the annoying and intelligence-insulting scale.
Dice please exterminate this local outbreak of this putrid Internet fungal growth.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
as the measurements taken over land so they need to be buried. There's a reason most studies only use data from airports near growing metro areas.
1. Accuracy - What kind of precision instrumentation was available aboard ship 200 years ago? I don't recall seeing any paintings or pictures where an anemometer/touchless IR thermometer/etc was depicted.
still believing that mankind is causing the earth's climate to change.. soo silly LOL
Years ago (about 25, yowser) I worked on an ocean-bottom mapping project (Hydrographic Information System) for the Australian Navy. We used depth data from everything from laser satellite measurements to Captain Cook's (and others') logbooks.
Well, the thing about the Exxon Valdez spill, is that it happened at night, shortly after leaving Port Valdez. Taking elevations at noon only tells you your latitude, unless you have a very accurate clock, and the sun can only be used in that manner at noon (AFAIK). You could try using another celestial object, but the visibility in the Valdez Narrows tends to be bad even for the region, although the seas are generally less than in Prince William Sound or the rest of the Gulf of Alaska. I presume you're referring to allegations that Exxon Valdez's radar navigation was turned off, but there has never been any evidence to that effect. Personally, I don't know Greg Palast, but I did grow up in Valdez, and I was there for the spill, and while I have no definitive evidence, I am pretty sure he is not only full of shit, but paid to be so. Even if the radar was off, you detect reefs with sonar, and that was working perfectly.
The biggest factor in the Exxon spill was the lack of a double-hull construction. It should not have been a disaster. Even if everything else that went wrong had still happened, it would have been mitigated to a great degree with better construction. It wasn't a problem of double-checking procedures or equipment, it was a fundamental design flaw.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
The shit you gave in your post implies your anger is rooted in your own willful ignorance.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Bollocks. As mentioned by someone else, a Yorkshire carpenter made a perfectly adequate one 300 years ago.
I'm guessing your country didn't even exist then.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
it's on you to prove that it is happening. i can't prove a negative.
I'm sure I read about this on here when the project was launched a couple of years ago. I was certainly aware of it through other channels.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Anything you read in a logbook, you can be sure that it is a true and faithful account.
Seriously? You believe that?
Maybe there still IS a market for bridges and ocean front property in Flagstaff, AZ.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Bridge and Radio watch standers were tasked to submit weather reports and log weather. With the exception of two people (one was I) on a ship of 100, every single watch stander who was tasked to this most important task didn't give a fuck. It was just one more bullshit task that the O's wanted done because it looked good on an OER. They could most of the time be counted on to report/ record somewhat accurately ambient and sea temperature, iff the gauges were working right. However if everything else that was required to be reported such as cloud type and amount, direction of swells / waves, and secondary swells was made the fuck up. If the guage reporting sea temperature on the bottom of the hull gauge was reporting a temp of 109 degrees F in the bearing sea in winter, you can bet that was the temperature that was put down in the official record.
Just saying. People put too much faith in numbers, and don't use their head to give the numbers a sanity check.
You obviously cannot read and comprehend what you read - perhaps you need to go back to grade school and get some lessons.. I didn't ask you to prove anything (although you have proved yourself to be an intellectual cripple). I asked you to provide compelling EVIDENCE that the earth is not warming. There is a load of EVIDENCE that it is if you can actually read more than comics. And posting as AC reinforces what a stupid prick you are.