Stephen McIntyre

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Stephen McIntyre is the primary author of Climate Audit, a blog devoted to the analysis and discussion of climate data. He is most prominent as a critic of the temperature record of the past 1000 years, particularly the work of Michael Mann, and the data quality of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Contents

[edit] Career

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Toronto.[1] He studied philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford.

McIntyre has worked in hard-rock mineral exploration[2] for 30 years, much of that time as an officer or director of several public mineral exploration companies. He has also been a policy analyst at both the governments of Ontario and of Canada.[3] He was the president and founder of Northwest Exploration Company Limited and a director of its parent company, Northwest Explorations Inc. When Northwest Explorations Inc. was taken over in 1998 by CGX Resources Inc. to form the oil and gas exploration company CGX Energy Inc., McIntyre ceased being a director. McIntyre was a strategic advisor for CGX in 2000 through 2003.[4]

Prior to 2003 he was an officer or director of several small public mineral exploration companies.

[edit] The Hockey stick controversy

Main article: Hockey stick controversy

With Ross McKitrick, McIntyre has been involved in questioning the validity of the "hockey stick" graph used in a journal article by Michael Mann and co-authors.[5]

[edit] Contributions to the temperature record

McIntyre has supported the efforts of Anthony Watts and SurfaceStations.org to document the quality of weather stations. McIntyre was investigating the claim that NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) software was able to fix any problems with data due to poor quality stations[citation needed].

While studying individual station histories, McIntyre found an anomaly in the US surface temperature anomaly record kept by GISS.[6] GISS investigated, found an error and incorporated a correction in their data set within 2 days.[7] The error affects the US surface temperature anomaly record, which for years 2000-2006 reduces the temperature anomaly by about 0.15°C. It made no perceptible difference to the global mean anomaly, nor to the rankings of the globally warmest years.

A few days later, McIntyre wrote:[8]

Closing the circle: my original interest in GISS adjustment procedures was not an abstract interest, but a specific interest in whether GISS adjustment procedures were equal to the challenge of “fixing” bad data. If one views the above assessment as a type of limited software audit (limited by lack of access to source code and operating manuals), one can say firmly that the GISS software had not only failed to pick up and correct fictitious steps of up to 1 deg C, but that GISS actually introduced this error in the course of their programming.

In the same article, McIntyre expressed his hope that the acknowledgment of this error will make it much more difficult for what he asserted was the denial by GISS to allow researchers access to the source code and methodologies GISS uses to construct its U.S. and global temperature anomalies. Both methodologies and source code are now available on the GISS website.

[edit] ClimateAudit.org

McIntyre's blog has as a recurrent topic the struggle to obtain underlying data from peer reviewed papers. McIntyre has stated that he started Climate Audit so that he could defend himself against attacks being made at RealClimate, a blog on climatology.[9] McIntyre's previous website www.climate2003.com predated both Climate Audit and RealClimate by at least a year. It contained "background and summary information" and "source data", and linked to discussion of M&M's papers, which presently includes links to RealClimate commentary. Climate Audit was a co-winner of best science blog in the 2007 weblog awards.[10]

[edit] Personal

He is an active squash player and once won a gold medal in the World Masters Games in squash doubles.[1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Stephen McIntyre (25 October 2003). Short Bio: Steven McIntyre. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
  2. ^ Stephen McIntyre (22 March 2006). Blog comment. Climate Audit. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
  3. ^ Stephen McIntyre. George C. Marshall Institute. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
  4. ^ Consolidated Statements of Operations & Deficit. cgxEnergy. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
  5. ^ McIntyre, Stephen; Ross McKitrick (February 2005). "Hockey Sticks, principal components, and spurious significance". Geophysical Research Letters 32: L03710. doi:10.1029/2004GL021750. 
  6. ^ Stephen McIntyre (7 August 2007). Will the Real USHCN Data Set Please Stand Up?. Climate Audit. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
  7. ^ GISS Surface Temperature Analysis: Monthly Updated Analysis. NASA. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
  8. ^ Stephen McIntyre (11 August 2007). Does Hansen's Error "Matter"?. Watts Up With That?. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
  9. ^ Stephen McIntyre (23 March 2006). Blog comment. Climate Audit. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
  10. ^ http://2007.weblogawards.org/polls/best-science-blog-1.php

[edit] External links

McIntyre's websites and publications

Articles about McIntyre and responses

Languages