One has to wonder why Phil Jones was so dumb back in August and to try and hide the CRU raw temp records with the excuse they were lost in the 1980’s. That is such bunk it is crazy – but we all now know how far he would go to avoid making his data and methods public.

It was also damning on all his colleagues that they did not call him on this blatant fib. Because they all knew they were working with ‘raw data’ well into the 2000’s. And the CRU code proves this beyond question.

I have uploaded the _READE_ME file with highlights. But here is an image of the top three highlights upon which I make my case (you can click to enlarge):

As you can see this file was written in July 25th, 2003 and revised March 30, 2004. This file explains how to ingest all the various forms of “raw” station data. You could not have written, tested, documented and updated this file and the supporting code without access to original station data.

When you combine this with the HARRY_READ_ME file it is clear the code was being used to create CRUT3 in the early 2000’s – presumably for the IPCC AR4 report.

In addition, you can see the various forms of station data being ingested and transformed into the CRU internal format. This includes Phil Jones’ format ((d) above), as well as the much more commonly utilized Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) and Monthly Climate Data for the World (MCDW) formats.

The comments are quite clear on how this process works, including retaining ‘original’ station IDs and developing ‘normals’ from the ‘raw’ station data, etc. The entire world’s station data was going through this SW, well beyond 1980.

The product of this run appears to be the idl_cruts3_2005_vs_2008b file, which I have been researching because it shows very little warming between the 1940’s blip and the 2,000’s.

I did note that (d) hinted at another file for processing the CRU internal format. I checked and that file was written in 2002.

Seems crystal clear to me – CRU was processing raw station data at least through 2004, and probably through 2008. They have the data still, Phil Jones basically made it all up.

Update: More evidence – I forgot about this file, created in January 2009, which discusses all the station data sources and how Hadley as to apply for small ‘corrections’.

Tags: Climategate, CRU, Original Station Data, Phil Jones