Climate Audit

In respect to the alleged CRU confidentiality agreements (which look increasingly fictitious), Jean S made the interesting observation that CRU archived station in the 1980s and early 1990s at CDIAC (ndp020) and that the alleged CRU confidentiality agreements, for some reason, did not interfere with that data being archived.

Interestingly, I happen to have a station list and station data of 1994 vintage – a little later than NDP020 – and compared the present station list to the 1994 list, showing both deletions and additions. The number of stations increased from 3524 in the 1994 vintage to 4138 in the current vintage, which gives the impression of more activity and expanded coverage. But see the remarkable maps below. Most of the additions are in the US and a couple of other countries, while deletions are widespread.

I’ve spent a fair bit of time comparing the lists. There’s a lot of sloppiness in the present CRU list – country identifications have not been updated for example. The USSR lives on at CRU. Not infrequently the same station is picked up from two different sources, each duplicate having a separate CRU identification.

But I had another interest in the comparison. In refusing a prior FOI request, Jones said that the data was already publicly available at GHCN. This is not true for the entire data set, but many CRU stations can be conclusively identified with GHCN stations. If Jones is deriving his CRU version for (say) Bahrain from GHCN, he cannot also rely on a confidentiality agreement with Bahrain as an excuse for not providing data.

It should be possible to go through the countries with data additions since 1994 one-by-one, mark off the ones whose data additions come from GHCN and see what’s left. This sort of thing takes a bit of time, but the results are always interesting. Here’s a preliminary report on the provenance of the additions – the ones to which the alleged confidentiality might apply.

In the list below, there are 59 countries in which a station has been added since the 1994 “public” version.

The vast majority of the increase came from the US through the addition of much of the USHCN network (frequently duplicating prior sources). Some US stations could not be tied so far to USHCN or GHCN versions.

New non-GHCN versions were added for Canada and Australia, frequently as duplicates.

A number of European countries added non-GHCN versions: Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, one UK station (Wick), one Ireland station (Phoenix Park), one Italy station (Milano/Brera).

In the rest of the world, the additions were nearly all GHCN stations. Exceptions were Syria and Taiwan. Perhaps China, though I suspect that more identifications with GHCN versions are possible than I’ve accomplished so far. Given that the additional data for Spain comes from GHCN stations, the question of a confidentiality agreement with Spain becomes moot. Similarly for say South Africa or PNG. There are a few odds and ends that I couldn’t match right away – a few stations in Iran, one in Brazil, a couple in Bolivia. Argentina has a number of additions (nearly all airports).

It’s hard for me to imagine that CRU has entered into confidentiality agreements during the IPCC period with the countries adding non-GHCN versions to the version of the data to which no restrictions applied. Countries like the US, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway – a list that includes some self-righteous countries.

SUMMARY:
country count Comment
ALGERIA-2: Both GHCN stations
ANTARCTICA-1. GHCN stations (Bernardo O’Higgins renumbered)
ARGENTINA 21. New stations are mostly airports
AUSTRALIA 147 Mostly GHCN. Need to crosscheck others.
AUSTRIA 11 Mostly new.
BAHRAIN 1 GHCN station.
BANGLADESH 2 GHCN stations
BOLIVIA 2 Two new: Potosi, Central La Paz
BRAZIL 2 One GHCN (Brasilia airport); one new- Caceres
BURKINA FASO 1 GHCN station.
CANADA 95 Many new; many duplicates
CHILE 4 Two GHCN; two “Unknown” 858341, 858921
CHINA 34 Many GHCN; many unmatched, but perhaps can be collated.
COTE D’IVOIRE 1 GHCN station
CROATIA 4 Renumbered GHCN
DENMARK 3 Three new.
DOMINICAN REPU 1 GHCN station
ECUADOR 1 GHCN station
EGYPT 1 GHCN station
FINLAND 3 Three new
FRANCE 1 GHCN station
GERMANY 13 GHCN stations
GREECE 3 Two GHCN; check ATHENS/HELLENIKON
GREENLAND 2 GHCN – check renumbering of Kap Tobin
HONDURAS 1 GHCN station
HUNGARY 2 GHCN stations
ICELAND 1 GHCN station renunbered
INDIA 2 GHCN stations
IRAN 35: 32 GHCN, Oroomieh, Bandar Azali, Chahbahar
IRELAND 3 Two GHCN- check Phoenix Park
ISRAEL 5 All new
ITALY 1 Check Milano/Brera
JAPAN 4 GHCN stations
JORDAN 1 GHCN stations
KOREA 9 GHCN stations
KUWAIT 1 GHCN stations
MADEIRA 1 GHCN stations
MALAWI 1 GHCN stations
MALAYSIA 1 GHCN stations
MEXICO 14 GHCN stations
MONGOLIA 2 GHCN stations
NETHERLANDS 4. One GHCN – check De Kooy, Eelde, Vlissingen
NEW ZEALAND 7 GHCN stations
NORWAY 12 Six GHCN, some new
PAPUA NEW GUIN 5 GHCN stations
PHILIPPINES 1 GHCN stations
PORTUGAL 3 GHCN
PUERTO RICO 1 GHCN stations
SLOVENIA 1 Renumbered GHCN
SOUTH AFRICA 34 GHCN
SPAIN 4 GHCN stations
SWEDEN 20 Mostly new
SYRIA 6 Mostly new
TAIWAN 14 Mostly new
TURKEY 1 GHCN station
UK 2 One GHCN – check Wick
URUGUAY 1 GHCN stations
USA 1051 additions – mostly USHCN
RUSSIA (“USSR”) 1 GHCN station