Comments on: On Being Skeptical of Data That Supports My Point of View http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2007/02/on_being_skepti.html Dispatches from a Small Business Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:42:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: sack of potatoes http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2007/02/on_being_skepti.html/comment-page-1#comment-4898 sack of potatoes Wed, 28 Feb 2007 20:40:20 +0000 http://coyote-blog.com/wordpress/2007/02/on_being_skepti.html#comment-4898 <p>Every time I see that 4 century long solar irradiance plot, I wonder what the error on it is. Do we really have a good enough data--be it from direct or from some proxy--to measure solar irradiance in the 17th century to 0.001 W/m^2?</p> <p>The source's abstract reads:</p> <p>"New reconstructions of spectral irradiance are developed since 1600 with absolute scales traceable to spacebased observations."</p> <p>It's not entirely clear but it seems like the given values are based upon a known correlation between sun-spot activity and solar irradience, but how accurate are our historical sun spot observations and what is our level of confidence in the veracity of the correlation? Yes, I understand that it's only the larger-scale trend that matters in this case and that is not undermined by my complaint, but it still annoys me that such data is presented without and reference to uncertainty and error.</p> <p>Oh, this is my first comment on your blog by the way. I've been following it for over a year now; keep up the good work.</p> Every time I see that 4 century long solar irradiance plot, I wonder what the error on it is. Do we really have a good enough data–be it from direct or from some proxy–to measure solar irradiance in the 17th century to 0.001 W/m^2?

The source’s abstract reads:

“New reconstructions of spectral irradiance are developed since 1600 with absolute scales traceable to spacebased observations.”

It’s not entirely clear but it seems like the given values are based upon a known correlation between sun-spot activity and solar irradience, but how accurate are our historical sun spot observations and what is our level of confidence in the veracity of the correlation? Yes, I understand that it’s only the larger-scale trend that matters in this case and that is not undermined by my complaint, but it still annoys me that such data is presented without and reference to uncertainty and error.

Oh, this is my first comment on your blog by the way. I’ve been following it for over a year now; keep up the good work.

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