Category Archives: maths

The designers of our climate

The blog … And Then There’s Physics wades deeply into the recent Monckton-Soon-Legates-Briggs paper. And, they conclude, what it is saying is that, conditional upon no feedbacks, equilibrium climate sensitivity (“ECS”) needs to be small. Except that they don’t say … Continue reading

Posted in astrophysics, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, Carl Sagan, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, differential equations, ecology, economics, engineering, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geoengineering, geophysics, humanism, IPCC, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, meteorology, methane, NASA, NCAR, Neill deGrasse Tyson, NOAA, oceanography, open data, open source scientific software, physics, politics, population biology, Principles of Planetary Climate, probabilistic programming, R, rationality, reasonableness, reproducible research, risk, science, science education, scientific publishing, sociology, solar power, statistics, testing, the right to know | 1 Comment

It’s the Trend, Stupid

The matter chronicled in Tamino’s post is just more reason why the results of Fyfe, Gillet, and Zwiers at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1972 which I wrote about at https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/warming-slowdown-2/ and https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/warming-slowdown-part-2/ look stranger and stranger. I increasingly think that the caution regarding ensembles … Continue reading

Posted in carbon dioxide, citizen science, climate, climate change, climate education, ecology, energy, environment, forecasting, geophysics, history, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, meteorology, NOAA, obfuscating data, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, statistics, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Naomi Oreskes and significance testing

Naomi Oreskes has an op-ed in The New York Times today, which intends to defend the severe standards of evidence scientists employ, with special applicability to climate science and their explanation of causation (greenhouse gases produce radiative forcing), attribution (most … Continue reading

Posted in Bayes, Bayesian, citizen science, climate, climate education, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, model comparison, rationality, reasonableness, science, statistics, testing | Leave a comment

On nested equivalence classes of climate models, ordered by computational complexity

I’m digging into the internals of ABC, for professional and scientific reasons. I’ve linked a great tutorial elsewhere, and argued that this framework, advanced by Wood, and Wilkinson (Robert), and Wilkinson (Darren), and Hartig and colleagues, and Robert and colleagues, … Continue reading

Posted in approximate Bayesian computation, Bayes, Bayesian, biology, ecology, environment, forecasting, geophysics, IPCC, mathematics, maths, MCMC, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, optimization, population biology, Principles of Planetary Climate, probabilistic programming, R, science, stochastic algorithms, stochastic search | Leave a comment

“[W]e want to model the process as we would simulate it.”

Professor Darren Wilkinson offers a pithy insight on how to go about constructing statistical models, notably hierarchical ones: “… we want to model the process as we would simulate it ….” This appears in his blog post One-way ANOVA with … Continue reading

Posted in approximate Bayesian computation, Bayes, Bayesian, biology, ecology, engineering, forecasting, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, model comparison, optimization, population biology, probabilistic programming, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, sociology, statistics, stochastic algorithms | Tagged | Leave a comment

climate internal variability is just residual variance from modeling with a smooth curve?

I happened across what I consider to be an amazing slide while “reading around” the work of Deser and colleagues. It is reproduced below, taken from Dagg and Wills: (Click image to see a larger picture, and use browser ‘back’ … Continue reading

Posted in cat1, citizen science, climate, climate education, forecasting, geophysics, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, meteorology, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, statistics | 4 Comments

illustrating particle filters and Bayesian fusion using successive location estimates on the unit circle

Introduction Modern treatments of Bayesian integration to obtain posterior densities often use some form of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (“MCMC”), typically Gibbs sampling. Gibbs works well with many Bayesian hierarchical models. The standard problem-solving situation with these is that a … Continue reading

Posted in Bayes, Bayesian, biology, mathematics, maths, population biology, probabilistic programming, R, statistics, stochastic algorithms | 1 Comment

“… making a big assumption …”

“That’s making a big assumption.” (This post is a follow-on from an earlier one.) In the colloquial, the phrase means basing an argument on a precondition which is unusual or atypical or offends common sense. When applied to scientific hypotheses, … Continue reading

Posted in Bayes, Bayesian, climate, climate education, environment, geophysics, information theoretic statistics, mathematics, maths, meteorology, model comparison, oceanography, physics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, statistics | 1 Comment

Bayesian inference works even in a chaotic or deterministic world

Professor John Geweke, in a Comment on an article by Professor Mark Berliner a bit back (1992), shows how Bayesian inference continues to be a means for expressing subjective uncertainty even in a scheme where there are no stochastics but … Continue reading

Posted in Bayes, Bayesian, citizen science, economics, education, forecasting, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, rationality, reasonableness, statistics, stochastic algorithms | Leave a comment

Understanding mechanisms in climate over short periods and in local regions

This is interesting, because it shows how any particular observational history of Earth is one election of a large number of possible futures. This is exactly the same point made by Slava Kharin in his 2008 tutorial lecture “Statistical concepts … Continue reading

Posted in carbon dioxide, climate, climate education, differential equations, ecology, energy, environment, forecasting, geophysics, IPCC, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, statistics, stochastic algorithms | 2 Comments

Climate Variability Diagnostics Package

NCAR’s CVDP, just written up in AGU’s EOS. The purpose, and links. The talk. Nicely done test engineering effort.

Posted in climate, differential equations, engineering, environment, geophysics, mathematics, maths, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, physics, science, statistics, testing | Leave a comment

An equation-free introduction to Bayesian inference

By Tomoharu Eguchi from 2008: “An Introduction to Bayesian Statistics Without Using Equations“.

Posted in Bayes, Bayesian, BUGS, JAGS, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, probabilistic programming, rationality, reasonableness, science education, statistics | Leave a comment

example of Bayesian inversion

This is based upon my solution of Exercise 2.3, page 18, R. Christensen, W. Johnson, A. Branscum, T. E. Hanson, Bayesian Ideas and Data Analysis, Chapman & Hall, 2011. The purpose is to show how information latent in a set … Continue reading

Posted in Bayesian, climate education, ecology, environment, forecasting, geophysics, Gibbs Sampling, JAGS, mathematics, maths, MCMC, physics, probabilistic programming, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, statistics | 1 Comment

extrapolations

Not much comment required. Don’t need any fancy “climate models”. Just need to extrapolate, for a very short time frame, where things are going.

Posted in carbon dioxide, climate, climate education, conservation, consumption, demand-side solutions, ecology, economics, energy reduction, engineering, environment, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, humanism, investment in wind and solar energy, mathematics, maths, meteorology, NOAA, oceanography, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, statistics | 2 Comments

El Nino, the scientific story (by Daniel Gross)

A scientific detective story. El Niño. How in the world did they figure that out? “Fishing in pink waters: How scientists unraveled the El Niño mystery“. By Daniel Gross. Hat tip to Greg Laden.    

Posted in climate, differential equations, energy, environment, forecasting, geophysics, mathematics, maths, meteorology, NASA, NOAA, oceanography, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, statistics | Leave a comment

“A pause or not a pause, that is the question.”

Very, very well done, Tamino.

Posted in climate, climate education, environment, forecasting, geophysics, mathematical publishing, mathematics, maths, meteorology, obfuscating data, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, statistics, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

“Stochasticity!”

RadioLab’s show/podcast this week was a tour of the world of probability, and its interface with people. I judge it great, but, then, I would. Their description? Stochasticity (a wonderfully slippery and smarty-pants word for randomness), may be at the … Continue reading

Posted in atheism, Bayesian, Boston Ethical Society, citizen science, citizenship, education, ethics, mathematics, maths, rationality, reasonableness, risk, statistics | Leave a comment

Bayesian deconvolution of stick lengths

Consider trying to determine the length of a straight stick. Instead of the measurement errors being clustered about zero, suppose the errors are known to be always positive, that is, no measurement ever underestimates the length of the stick. Such … Continue reading

Posted in Bayesian, Gibbs Sampling, JAGS, mathematics, maths, optimization, probabilistic programming, R, statistics, stochastic algorithms, stochastic search | Leave a comment

Ray Pierrehumbert on the new U.S.-China climate deal

Professor Pierrehumbert offers his thoughts in Slate. He’s the author of Principles of Planetary Climate which is, as far as I’m concerned, the definitive climate book.

Posted in astronomy, astrophysics, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, Carbon Tax, chemistry, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate education, conservation, consumption, demand-side solutions, differential equations, ecology, economics, education, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, engineering, environment, forecasting, geoengineering, geophysics, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, mathematics, maths, meteorology, methane, NCA, NOAA, oceanography, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, scientific publishing, solar power, statistics, wind power | Tagged | Leave a comment

A conclusion that “the hiatus” in global land surface warming is natural variability

Lovejoy provides conclusive statistical evidence, free of use of climate models, that the so-called “hiatus” in global land surface warming is due to natural variability and is decidedly not a suspension of global climate change. See S. Lovejoy, “Return periods … Continue reading

Posted in carbon dioxide, climate, climate education, forecasting, geophysics, IPCC, maths, meteorology, oceanography, physics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, scientific publishing, statistics | 2 Comments

Observed change: National Climate Assessment

See NOAA’s “observed change”.

Posted in citizenship, civilization, climate, climate education, environment, forecasting, geophysics, IPCC, maths, meteorology, NCA, NOAA, oceanography, physics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science | Leave a comment

“I very much enjoy taking those people on, but, meanwhile, it breaks my heart”

Amen, brother Bill. I very much know what you mean. It really hurts.

Posted in astrophysics, atheism, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, Carl Sagan, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate education, compassion, ecology, economics, education, engineering, environment, forecasting, geophysics, history, humanism, mathematics, maths, meteorology, methane, Neill deGrasse Tyson, oceanography, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, solar power, wind power | Leave a comment

Brendon Brewer on “Hard Integrals”

Hard Integrals.

Posted in Bayesian, mathematics, maths, statistics, stochastic algorithms | Leave a comment

Brian Hayes on clear climate models for the curious public

American Scientst has a nice article by Brian Hayes recounting the basic physics of climate, and then recommending both public engagement with clear, simple climate models, at least by the curious and scientifically literate, and the development of models which … Continue reading

Posted in astrophysics, carbon dioxide, Carl Sagan, cat1, citizen science, civilization, climate, climate education, conservation, consumption, differential equations, education, energy, environment, forecasting, geophysics, mathematics, maths, meteorology, oceanography, physics, reasonableness, risk, science, scientific publishing, statistics | Leave a comment

“It’ll be okay: Trust me”, redux

Professor Steven Koonin offers up another dollop of vague, specious criticism of climate science in his editorial in The Wall Street Journal. He is credentialed, no doubt authoritative. But compelling arguments for a position should be judged as if the … Continue reading

Posted in art, Boston Ethical Society, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, Carbon Tax, citizenship, climate, climate education, conservation, ecology, economics, education, energy, engineering, environment, forecasting, geophysics, mathematics, maths, meteorology, oceanography, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, science | 8 Comments

The dp-means algorithm of Kulis and Jordan in R and Python

dp-means algorithm. Think k-means but with the number of clusters calculated. By John Myles White, in R. (Github link off that page.) By Scott Hendrickson, in Python. (Github link off that page.)

Posted in Bayesian, Gibbs Sampling, JAGS, mathematics, maths, R, statistics, stochastic algorithms, stochastic search | Tagged | Leave a comment

Blind Bayesian recovery of components of residential solid waste tonnage from totals data

This is a sketch of how maths and statistics can do something called blind source separation, meaning to estimate the components of data given only their totals. Here, I use Bayesian techniques for the purpose, sometimes called Bayesian inversion, using … Continue reading

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singingbanana does “The Lorenz Machine”

On the power of mathematics, and why 55:45 versus 50:50 matters.

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Emission reductions since 1990

It is popular to gage progress towards greenhouse gas emissions reductions by how much they have been reduced since 1990. This is done by the federal government, and it is done by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the wrong … Continue reading

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How fast is JAGS?

How fast is JAGS?.

Posted in BUGS, engineering, Gibbs Sampling, JAGS, mathematics, maths, MCMC, probabilistic programming, R, statistics, stochastic algorithms | Leave a comment