Borehole Temperatures and Past Climate.
T-D.PDF
A research paper that demonstrates the difficulty in
using borehole temperatures to assess climate more distant than a
hundred years past; and, the difficulty in equating ground
surface temperatures with air temperatures. This is a revision of a paper submitted
to a major journal in 1997 which generated reviews ranging from
...very good...
to an ad
hominem complaint that it ...should never be
published, even with revisions...
An alternative
point of view is available at
U of Michigan
Removing cultural noise in geophysical field work. Filter.htm A brief summary of profile filtering in the reciprocal domain, including pass-band filters, analytic continuation away from the source; and, introducing data consistency filtering. This paper may be appropriate to a journal like Geophysics, but it has been a decade since I wrote it, why should I wait another year or two for a peer review and suffer the aggravation that goes along with it?
Automatic interpretation methods in geophysics. Object.htm This is the text of a talk I gave at a luncheon meeting of the Mining Geophysicist of Denver (MiGod) in 1988. It is as current today as it was then. The HTML file takes a minute or so to download. It has 7 color GIF graphics in it.
Inverse theory and occultation light curves. Occult.htm A research paper that re-examines estimates of the diameters of Saturn's satellites made over 20 years ago. The paper is not important enough to publish in any other venue, but it does illustrate some potential hazards accompanying inversion of geophysical data. A link to other information about occultation is: Robinson Lunar Observatory
Rainbow on a spreadsheet
Rainbow.pdf
After being asked by a colleague how elementary
calculus students could find the size of the rainbow, I
set about to calculate this on a spreadsheet. We don't need
calculus at all, it turns out. I argue that elementary
meteorology texts do, at best, a dismal job of explaining the
rainbow, and never explain why the sky is bright in the direction
of the minimum deviated ray. This is part of a longer paper that
was rejected after a reviewer said it was superfluous because...
The first two items are canards because the suggested material is
too advanced for most freshmen or sophomores, and you can imagine
what I think of point number three. The second half of the
original article I am revising and will submit on this page soon.
Commentary on Climate Change Record in Subsurface Temperatures: A Global Perspective. Comment1.htm A technical comment sent to Science magazine regarding a paper by Pollack et al in which they argue that worldwide borehole temperatures show ancient climate to be more stable than it is today. Hence, the warming of the last century is especially anomalous. Their conclusion may eventually be proved correct, but the borehole data do not confirm it. Among other things, their a priori hypothesis for their Bayesian approach is a non-neutral. This is circular reasoning in subtle form. I have added two clarifying sentences to the original submission to Science. The editor first indicated an interest in the comment, then dropped the matter.
Snow along a rocky crest west of Laramie, Wyoming
K.T. Kilty © 1995 All Rights Reserved
Temperatures in a Glacier: Part I The Steady State. glacier1.pdf The theoretical steady temperature distribution in a glacier is remarkably like that observed. Papers by Cuffey et al and Dahl-Jensen et al on borehole temperatures were the inspiration for this note and its companion glacier2.pdf.
Temperatures in a Glacier: Part II Why temperature history is accurately portrayed in the T-d curve of a glacier. glacier2.pdf Over a significant depth range in a glacier, the governing equation of heat transport is almost a hyperbolic PDE. This suggests that the surface temperature history is more accurately recovered from a borehole temperature log in a glacier than in an equivalent borehole in the crust. Papers by Cuffey et al and Dahl-Jensen et al on borehole temperatures were the inspiration for this note and its companion glacier1.pdf.