PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Is the BOM manipulating temperature records?
Old 8th Aug 2017, 02:29
  #75 (permalink)  
Hydromet
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 999
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No one person has the wherewithal to check the data produced by BOM. Doesn't it set alarm bells ringing when individual records are found to be corrupted? Doesn't it then suggest if one site is corrupted, are all sites corrupted? Can the data produced by BOM be ever trusted again?
No one person has the wherewithal, but most data from the BoM will be checked by professional users, of which I was one for almost 50 years. Occasionally, errors or apparent anomalies will be found. When this happens, it is reported to the Bureau, and in my experience, a response is always received. The data is always checked. Sometimes it is found to be wrong, sometimes it is found to be correct, and sometimes the assessed quality of the data is altered (not all data is 'best' quality - sometimes you have to take what you can get) but overall the error rate is quite low. If you are so minded, there will be traceability in the data, right back to the calibrations that have been done through the life of the instrument, so I'm sure that a freedom of information request would get it for you.
Can the BoM's data be trusted? Sure, more than you can trust some coal-funded climate sceptic politician or conspiracy theorist.
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