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Ask HN: What are some good sources of climate data to analyze?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some good sources of climate data to analyze?

#11

Post by loudmax »

If you're looking for raw data, you can find measurements from NASA's earth observation missions here: https://earthdata.nasa.gov/

NASA's Worldview application presents the data as overlays on maps of the Earth and it lets you scroll backward in time from the start of the missions (around 2000 or so) up to near real time (a few hours old). If you want to make sense of the scientific data, you'll still need to put some work into understanding what the instruments are measuring: https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/

Re: Ask HN: What are some good sources of climate data to analyze?

#12

Post by padraic7a »

I believe that the dataset published by ICARUS in Maynooth University might be more complete and up to date than some of the others mentioned here. It is a combination of a large number of datasets, is global in scope and runs from 1900 to 2012.

http://maynoothdigitalcollections.ie/catalog/bg257f05g

It is the basis for the two following articles:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015JD024583/abst...

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015JD024584/abst...

IIRC the largest files might not download correctly from this repository linked to above. If that it the case you should contact the researcher Peter Thorne:

https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/peter-thorne

Re: Ask HN: What are some good sources of climate data to analyze?

#14

Post by rpeden »

sasheets wrote: post #5

Here's a compilation of links to get you started: https://tamino.wordpress.com/climate-data-links/ Climate science is a big subject and you should start by understanding the basics of the subject. Spencer Weart's history of climate science is a good place to start: https://history.aip.org/climate/index.htm Also, I see many people with strong statistics/engineering backgrounds analyzing climate data and coming to wron…

Thanks for the suggestions.

And thanks for the heads up regarding coming to wrong incorrect conclusions. That's important and useful advice.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good sources of climate data to analyze?

#15

Post by rpeden »

There's a reply that's dead, but I'd like to address it. It asked:

"We have 25 years or so invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?"

That's a fair question, but my aim definitely isn't to try to find something wrong with the data. My aim is only to explore the data and find out what's right and what's wrong about my current understanding of the situation. I don't plan to blog about or even discuss the work I do.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good sources of climate data to analyze?

#16

Post by godshatter »

I follow some websites casually, usually daily, to get an idea of what the numbers are showing me. It's just a ritual I go through in the mornings before going to work.

When I want to see where we are temperature-wise, I go to http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/ for the latest satellite monthly temperatures.

The What's Up with That? website (which is strongly biased towards the "denier" side of the debate) has a great collection of graphs related to arctic and antarctic sea ice: http://wattsupwiththat.com/reference-pages/sea-ice-page/

I go to http://spaceweather.com/ to watch the sunspot numbers (just for curiosity sake), http://sealevel.colorado.edu/ for sea level information, and http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/ensostu... to see if we're in an El Nino or a La Nina (or somewhere in the middle).

Re: Ask HN: What are some good sources of climate data to analyze?

#17

Post by stared »

Right now I am using this data: https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/station_data/

While my motivation is to demonstrate matrix decomposition (see: https://twitter.com/pmigdal/status/902563470125789188), I wanted to use a credible source. See also a few threads on Open Data Stack Exchange (e.g. https://opendata.stackexchange.com/questions/1546/how-might-...).

Re: Ask HN: What are some good sources of climate data to analyze?

#18

Post by godshatter »

rpeden wrote: post #15

There's a reply that's dead, but I'd like to address it. It asked: "We have 25 years or so invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?" That's a fair question, but my aim definitely isn't to try to find something wrong with the data. My aim is only to explore the data and find out what's right and what's wrong about my current understand…

Also, isn't publishing something in order for others to "find something wrong with it" a core component of the scientific method?

Re: Ask HN: What are some good sources of climate data to analyze?

#19

Post by dreamcompiler »

lisper wrote: post #13

http://berkeleyearth.org Not just data, but analysis tools as well. Run by a Berkeley physicist who was originally a climate change skeptic and changed his mind after doing this analysis.

Rich Muller is a smart guy. I was at the conference where he announced he had changed his mind about climate change, and why. FWIW, his book "Physics for Future Presidents" -- while not really about climate change -- is very good too.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good sources of climate data to analyze?

#20

Post by nl »

lisper wrote: post #13

http://berkeleyearth.org Not just data, but analysis tools as well. Run by a Berkeley physicist who was originally a climate change skeptic and changed his mind after doing this analysis.

I looked into this a while back and came to the conclusion that this is the best source.

To combat the "oh no they are 'corrected'" claims, they host the uncorrected, completely raw files too[1]. Then you can have the enjoyable task of trying to work out how to correct for sensors moving, cities growing, etc. Look for the "raw" datasets, as opposed to the Breakpoint Adjusted files.

[1] http://berkeleyearth.org/data/

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