The legacy of Charles Keeling
Last edited Thu Nov 19, 2015, 01:18 PM - Edit history (1)
The temperature records produced by various organizations (NOAA, NASA, Met Office Hadley Centre, etc) have been challenged from time to time by people calling into question their accuracy. The most notorious of these of course is Anthony Watts, operator of Watts Up With That. Even though no critic has ever been able to disprove the basic truth of those records, that global temperatures are consistently rising and have been for decades, deniers have continued to raise questions about the numbers.
In contrast, the historical record of global CO2 measurements has never been seriously called into question. This fact can be largely attributed to the efforts of one person: Charles Kneeling. For decades he dedicated himself to the seemingly simple task of measuring atmospheric CO2, meticulously improving instruments and documenting processes that would ensure the most accurate measurements possible. An example of his meticulousness can be seen in his 1976 description of how technicians should take their measurements:
The sample taker, to minimize contamination from his own breath, was instructed to sample only when the wind was at least 5 knots. After first breathing normally near the site for some moments, he exhales, then inhales slightly, and finally without exhaling again, walks 10 steps into the wind, where he takes the sample...
An account of the history of his career, including examples of the roadblocks he encountered during the Reagan administration, can be read about in this biography: https://www1.umn.edu/ships/modules/earth/keeling/Keeling.pdf
