The CRN has guidelines for site selection and guidelines for taking photos. I shared
these all a while back and I’m too damn lazy to do it again. So, google

NOAA CRN..

(Sorry bad mood flag is set positive.)

All the the CRN sites I have seen pictures of are pristine. From the sensor standpoint you
get 3 real time traces from 3 seperate sensors.

From a SPEC perspective I think the CRN addresses known issues. IMPLEMENTATION is the key.

Now, the papers supporting the CRN have been a little slow in coming out.

Anthony had a chance to talk with Baker ( at UCAR ) who is a key guy on CRN

THE BIG FIGHT will be this. How is the historcial network adjusted to the REFERENCE network.

And will changes get propegated to the past? for the US of course, 2% skim milk.

My understanding is that the USCRN (Climate Reference Network) is supposed to provide something of that nature.

Note the application of C-Squares to “Oceanographic Datasets”…. Marsden Squares, WMO Squares, C-Squares and like meteorological geocodes are reported in the fields of some datasets and not in many others: often not in Surface and more often in some Marine, Upper Air, Satellite or Other datasets.

Try browsing the datasets:

Dataset Documentation
http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/documentlibrary/datasets.html?td1300.pdf

6380 – Worldwide Aircraft Reports, for one example, reports Marsden Squares.

Also note that Marsden Squares are sometimes reported in smaller divisions than 10 by 10 degrees by using Mesh Codes.

See for example:

Position Code Table
Marsden Square Chart (World)
Marsden Square Subdivisions
5 Degree Mesh Code
1 Degree Mesh Code
30 Minute Mesh Code
15 Minute Mesh Code
6 Minute Mesh Code
http://www.jodc.go.jp/data_format/position-code.html

While browsing and reading the dataset descriptions, note the presence and absence of data quality statements. See for example the comments about ASOS and issues with Platinum sensors having a range of inaccuracy and aspiration requirements.

“Hansen is looking more and more like a incompetent buffoon rather than a respected climate scientist.”

I don’t understand your comment. It sounds like you think those are mutally exclusive terms, when in practice the first term serves as a definition for the second term.

Yeah, it’s 1%, moved a decimal point in my head. Been using a calculator too long. My contention is a compromise between thowing the urban sites away, and “adjusting” the temperature data. I think the urban data is still valid data, if treated properly, i.e., if it is representative of the area it represents and weighted properly. It’s the use of this data to represent areas that are not consistent with the area the temperature was taken in that I think is wrong. Also trying to adjust the data makes no sense since there is no accurate calibration for that adjustment, just rule of thumb. But on the other hand those sites are still representative of some of the earths surface and shouldn’t be ignored, just as a cold site shouldn’t.

Bernie,

Marsden squares have long been used by maritime/nautical organizations as a mapping system, and nautical meteorolgy has customarily used the Marsden square numerical designation systems (there are multiple variations) as a basis for reporting weather conditions. Marsden squares are quadrangles measuring 10 degrees of latitude by 10 degrees of longitude, and each Marsden square is allocated a numerical identifier. The WMO (World Meteorological Organization) further developed another system for numbering Marsden Squares and designated this 10 degree by 10 degree geocode system as World Meteorological Organization Squares. More recently, the C-Squares system of hierarchal geocodes was introduced by Tony Rees, CSIRO Marine Research, which further defines the Marsden Squares and WMO Squares in 5 degree, 1 degree, 0.5 degree, and smaller resolutions. Meterological satellite sensing systems have based much of their sensing data reports on these types of customary meterological geocodes to facilitate data management.

See:

Rees, Tony, CSIRO Marine Research, Hobart, Tasmania Australia. “C-Squares”, a New Spatial Indexing System and its Applicability to the Description of Oceanographic Datasets.
http://www.marine.csiro.au/csquares/csq-article-Mar03-lowres.pdf

Roger Pielke, Sr., of the soon to be defunct Climate Science web log, has proposed ocean heat content as the gold standard for years. Unfortunately, it isn’t very easy to measure and significant problems have been identified with past records. OTOH, a good measurement gives a relatively instantaneous measure of the overall radiative balance of the system.