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February 22, 2009

Ooops! Ice Ice Baby!

Remember all the uproar about how arctic sea ice levels were at their lowest ever, causing all the cute cuddly polar bears to die of starvation and drowning because they couldn't traipse about on the ice while looking for fish sea kittens to eat discuss chemical energy transference issues with?

Well, it looks like things were misunderestimated


Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- A glitch in satellite sensors caused scientists to underestimate the extent of Arctic sea ice by 500,000 square kilometers (193,000 square miles), a California- size area, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center said.

The error, due to a problem called “sensor drift,” began in early January and caused a slowly growing underestimation of sea ice extent until mid-February. That’s when “puzzled readers” alerted the NSIDC about data showing ice-covered areas as stretches of open ocean, the Boulder, Colorado-based group said on its Web site.

“Sensor drift, although infrequent, does occasionally occur and it is one of the things that we account for during quality- control measures prior to archiving the data,” the center said. “Although we believe that data prior to early January are reliable, we will conduct a full quality check.’’

The extent of Arctic sea ice is seen as a key measure of how rising temperatures are affecting the Earth. The cap retreated in 2007 to its lowest extent ever* and last year posted its second- lowest annual minimum at the end of the yearly melt season. The recent error doesn’t change findings that Arctic ice is retreating, the NSIDC said.

*as everyone knows the word "ever" is of course defined as "oh, the last 50 years or so."

Of course, don't you fear that there could possibly be any other errors in the data the Gorebalists are using. No sirree, not a chance.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at February 22, 2009 07:57 AM

Comments

"...*as everyone knows the word "ever" is of course defined as "oh, the last 50 years or so."

Exactly. There were viable farms in Greenland in the 12th and 13th centuries. That was why it was called GREEN-land. It was WARMER then. I think we're finally reaching a tipping point where a sizable amount of the public is recognizing that "man-made climate change" is largely self-serving political bullshit.

Posted by: Dave J at February 22, 2009 09:16 AM

Whether or not the public recognizes that they've elected officials that truly give not a shit what they think. Expect this travesty to continue and probably go through a few more name changes.

Posted by: Ebola at February 22, 2009 05:30 PM

They misplaced something the size of CALIFORNIA - but trust them, they're experts!

Posted by: nightfly at February 23, 2009 11:20 AM