For years, Australian biologist Jennifer Marohasy has questioned the reliability of the Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM) new methods of reporting historical weather records, which have shown a rising in temperatures over the past few decades. She wants the BoM to make public its sets of raw data from both mercury thermometer readings as well as electronic readings from updated automatic weather stations.
In response, her husband, environmental researcher John Abbott, took the matter to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Brisbane with Marohasy appearing as an expert witness. They called for the BoM to make raw temperature data public, something the weather bureau has refused previously.
Raw Temperature Data Crucial to Understanding Climate Change
According to Marohasy, a major reason why Australia’s temperature data may have underlying issues leading to different interpretations is because of the changes in equipment used, resulting in the need for homogenisation to standardise the data between the measurement methods.Previously, the BoM used mercury thermometers, which have a slow response to change. These have since been replaced with electronic sensors, which are more sensitive.
“This matters for understanding climate variability and change—the trend.”
ACORN-SAT stands for the Australian Climate Observations Reference Network—Surface Air Temperatures.
According to Marohasy, 44.8 degrees Celsius (112.6 F) was the maximum temperature measured at Albany, Western Australia, on Feb. 8, 1933. In the year 2012, BoM homogenised the maximum temperature to 51.2 degrees Celsius (124 F), before it was recently revised to 49.5 degrees Celsius (121.1 F).
She noted that the release of the parallel data attained from mercury and electronic thermometers is important so that readings from the new equipment can be compared with readings from the old equipment, “including to check they are comparable—that there are no discontinuities.”
“Work that I have undertaken with John Abbot shows that even without the industrial revolution, there would have been a temperature increase of about 1 C (1.8 F) through the 20th Century.
The biologist further noted that release of the data “is in the public interest—given far-reaching public policy decisions are being made on the basis of a 1.5 C tipping point.”
‘No Significant Difference’ Shown: BoM
In a statement to The Epoch Times, the BoM said, “there is no significant difference in the diurnal temperature range measured using mercury thermometers compared with platinum resistance probes.”“It is of real concern to me that so many faux scientists, both sceptics and alarmists, are uninterested in the evidence, specifically the parallel data,” she said.
“They are uninterested because this evidence does not accord with the narratives that have developed on both sides. And they are not curious.”
“They don’t understand the evidence I present. And I suspect they are too busy to make the time to get across the evidence.”
“The established narratives do not generally include incompetence; rather, they focus on malfeasance.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to Marohasy but didn’t receive a response in time for publication.