At Ted Cruz's denial hearing last month, the main (and perhaps only) piece of evidence he used to support his claim that temperatures haven’t risen is the satellite record. By way of an argument, Cruz asserted the satellite data is the most reliable, and because it shows a pause, the alarmists must be wrong. While it’s obvious this ignores the many other lines of evidence showing the Earth has warmed, it also falsely inflates the reliability of the satellites. To explain why, Peter Sinclair at Yale Climate Connections interviewed a number of climate 'Heroes' who discuss some of the backstory and nuance of the satellite record.



The result of Sinclair's efforts is a nine minute video, accompanied by a written summary that teases some of the video's best quotes. One of the most important points the experts in the video make is that the record kept by Spencer and Christy has, over the years, been forced to make a number of 'ch-ch-ch-ch-changes' such that the data went from showing cooling, to stable, to warming temperatures.



The biggest and most easily understood error is that Spencer and Christy failed to account for the fact that the friction between the satellites and atmosphere meant the satellites gradually 'Fell to Earth.' With an annual drop of about a kilometer a year, what Spencer and Christy thought were measurements taken at 2pm were actually taken at 6pm. This error led to Spencer and Christy’s mistaken assessment that temperatures were cooling, because clearly temperatures in the evening are cooler than those in the afternoon.



Then there’s the irony of criticizing dataset adjustments. Though the self-styled scientific 'Rebel, Rebel' Senator Cruz likes to compare climate skeptics to Galileo—all the while pointing a finger at NOAA for adjusting thermometer data—the satellite data is actually put through a much more complex adjustment process. The satellites measure radiance (photons or voltage) not temperatures, requiring mathematical translation into a temperature reading. So while climate models are a constant denier whipping boy, the satellite data is put through a “retrieval algorithm,” which in layman’s terms, is a model—one that climate scientist Andrew Dessler reiterates has been, “shown repeatedly to be wrong.” In a better world, this myth would have 'died alone, a long long time ago.'



But it hasn’t, and next week when NOAA/NASA make the announcement that 2015 has trumped 2014 as the hottest year on record, we can be sure that deniers will make the usual claims about data adjustments, they will point to the satellite record, and claim that because of the 18-year pause, 'Young Americans' have never experienced any global warming.



Now, instead of getting into a drawn out argument, you can simply link to the Yale Climate Connections video to explain just how hypocritical these claims are. Easy as that. Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am!

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