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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?

#31

Post by titojankowski »

"No One Gives a Fuck About Climate Change" made the front page of Hacker News in June. This inspired a team to created the first Open API for Climate Data. It's a repository of carbon dioxide data as measured on Mauna Loa by NOAA.

The prototype is up and running with data from 1958 - 2017! http://api.carbondoomsday.com prototype frontend: http://carbondoomsday.com.

The project is open source on GitHub: https://github.com/giving-a-fuck-about-climate-change

The original blog post that inspired the project: No One Gives a Fuck About Climate Change (http://titojankowski.com/no-one-gives-a-fck-about-climate-ch...)

Would love to get your perspective and feedback! Maybe you want to follow the project on Github?

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

#32

Post by reitanqild »

drewmol wrote: post #27
airza wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sure, but statistically someone who knows how to correctly interpret this data probably already has the academic communication channels to solicit it directly, so someone randomly asking for it online probably has an axe to grind

Based on my interpretation, using that logic as a reason to withhold the data probably furthers the exclusionary/isolationist phenomenon that exists in modern academia already. Certainly people who are formally accredited to 'correctly interpret this data' are quantifiable, but without providing it to the non-credentialed as well we shouldn't draw statistical claims based on their ability to correctly analyze somethi…

Example: me

I pride myself with being able to change my mind even on topics that I have been sure about since I was a kid. (Example: laws against drugs, -based on thoughful opinions by people here and possibly elsewhere I now think we would be better of if certain drugs were decriminalized.)

On certain topics however like AGW or not there is still just a shouting match: flagging, downvoting, accusations ("sceptism is just another word for denier", "anyone who disagree is a paid shill", "questions are never real, it is the YAQ tactic")

Luckily I've met some more reasonable folks at work that kindly answered my questions about data -with data- instead of flaming me.

You see, people like me want data like metric tons of CO2 by source

- not data about how many scientists have agreed.

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

#33

Post by titojankowski »

titojankowski wrote: post #31

"No One Gives a Fuck About Climate Change" made the front page of Hacker News in June. This inspired a team to created the first Open API for Climate Data. It's a repository of carbon dioxide data as measured on Mauna Loa by NOAA. The prototype is up and running with data from 1958 - 2017! http://api.carbondoomsday.com prototype frontend: http://carbondoomsday.com . The project is open source on GitHub: https://githu…

Also, continue this discussion with other like-minded hackers!

Join the "Giving Fucks about Climate Change" Google Group: https://groups.google.com/d/forum/giving-fucks-about-climate...

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

#34

Post by pjc50 »

The IPCC full reports are probably the place to start.

However, before embarking on your own analysis, you should consider what questions you're trying to answer and how to avoid misleading yourself. There are two very important and extremely complex areas: proxies and forcing.

Proxies are the use of data other than temperature measurements to infer temperature, such as tree rings and ice cores.

Forcing is the second-order effects of more CO2 such as causing more water evaporation - whic is itself a greenhouse gas.

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

#35

Post by pjc50 »

reitanqild wrote: post #32
drewmol wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on my interpretation, using that logic as a reason to withhold the data probably furthers the exclusionary/isolationist phenomenon that exists in modern academia already. Certainly people who are formally accredited to 'correctly interpret this data' are quantifiable, but without providing it to the non-credentialed as well we shouldn't draw statistical claims based on their ability to correctly analyze somethi…

Example: me I pride myself with being able to change my mind even on topics that I have been sure about since I was a kid. (Example: laws against drugs, -based on thoughful opinions by people here and possibly elsewhere I now think we would be better of if certain drugs were decriminalized.) On certain topics however like AGW or not there is still just a shouting match: flagging, downvoting, accusations ("sceptism is…

> metric tons of CO2 by source

Surprisingly hard to measure without controversy. You can take point measurements of atmospheric content and ocean cooncentration, but all sorts of things like melting permafrost outgassing have to be estimated.

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

#36

Post by gd1 »

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…

The poster you refer to is referencing a Phil Jones quote

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

#37

Post by kadal »

https://www.climatedataguide.ucar.edu/

Quoting from the website "Search and access 194 data sets covering the Atmosphere, Ocean, Land and more. Explore climate indices, reanalyses and satellite data and understand their application to climate model metrics. This is the only data portal that combines data discovery, metadata, figures and world-class expertise on the strengths, limitations and applications of climate data."

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

#38

Post by mindcrime »

stared wrote: post #17

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-... ).

Since you mentioned the Open Data Stack Exchange, it might also be worth pointing out a couple of sub-reddits that might also be of use to the OP (or anybody):

https://www.reddit.com/r/datasets/

https://www.reddit.com/r/opendata/

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

#39

Post by mapster »

prewett wrote: post #22
sword_smith wrote: post #2

I have a Master's degree in physics from the University of Copenhagen and I have taught together with one of the leading climate scientists from that university Bo Møllesøe Vinther. He claimed that the best dataset on global average temperatures is satellite based and is the University of Alabama in Huntington dataset (UAH) which goes back to 1979. You can find it here: https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/ Direct link…

Wouldn't you need data going back for thousands of years? 40 years of data won't tell you anything about the cause of the temperatures in this data set. You'll need to eliminate the possibility that we are in a Little Heat Wave cycle; if you got forty years of temperature data during the beginning of the Little Ice Age, you won't have a representative sample, for instance.

Its a unique dataset. it does not portend to be a multi-source long history dataset. you raise a question re: long term trends which is another topic.

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

#40

Post by mindcrime »

mturmon wrote: post #26
mindcrime wrote: post #8

It's slightly tangential, but you might find this project, and the surrounding community, to be of interest. https://climate.apache.org/ Also, in addition to historical data that's already collected and available online, an interesting side note is that it's possible to directly receive some satellite data yourself using a relatively inexpensive SDR (Software Defined Radio) device. This article deals specifically wit…

The Apache project you link is not tangential at all -- it's spot on! See the examples at: https://github.com/apache/climate/tree/master/examples The people advising the project have significant publications and research experience. I believe some of their examples are replicating peer-reviewed work with that software.

Fair enough. I just meant tangential in the sense that the OP was asking about data, not software specifically. But yeah, it is very much about working with climate models. Unfortunately I can't claim any experience working with the project myself... I'm only familiar with it in passing.
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