William Connolley
William Connolley | |
|---|---|
| File:DSC 1150-w-smile.JPG Connolley in May 2008 | |
| Born | 12 April 1964 |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | M.A. (Oxon.), D.Phil. (Oxon.) |
| Alma mater | University of Oxford |
| Occupation | Software engineer |
| Known for | Research into climate change |
William Michael Connolley (born 12 April 1964) is a British software engineer, writer, and blogger on climate science. Until December 2007 he was Senior Scientific Officer in the Physical Sciences Division in the Antarctic Climate and the Earth System project at the British Antarctic Survey, where he worked as a climate modeller.
Background
Connolley holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics and a DPhil from St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford for his work on numerical analysis.[1]
Until December 2007 Connolley was a climate modeller at the Antarctic Climate and the Earth System project at the British Antarctic Survey. His main research work focused on sea ice measurement and modelling, and global climate models (GCM) such as HadCM3.[2] Because direct observations of Antarctic sea ice are sparse, satellite Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSMI) based observations are used instead. Inconsistency in sea ice predictions from the various GCM algorithms in use makes verification of GCM output difficult.
Connolley also worked on the validation of SSMI data against more direct upward looking sonar observations in the Weddell Sea area. He concluded that Bootstrap data produced a better fit than data produced by NASA, prompting the conclusion that GCM predictions are more realistic than previously thought.[3]
Writing and editing
Connolley has authored and co-authored articles and literature reviews in the field of climatological research, including several concluding that a majority of scientific papers in the 1970s actually predicted warming, not global cooling.[4][5][6] Connolley was a member of the RealClimate website until 2007,[7][8] and currently operates a website and blog that discuss climate issues.[9][10][11]
Connolley is an editor of Wikipedia and served as a Wikipedia sysop, a form of website administrator, until 2009.[12][13][14] A December 2005 Nature article that compared the reliability of Wikipedia to Encyclopedia Britannica used Connolley as an example of an expert who regularly writes for the online encyclopedia.[15] An October 2006 Nature article that contrasted Wikipedia with the Citizendium online encyclopedia project (which recruits experts from academia), quoted Connolley as saying that "some scientists have become frustrated with Wikipedia" but that "conflict can sometimes result in better articles".[16] His Wikipedia editing was also discussed in a July 2006 article in The New Yorker that said he briefly became "a victim of an edit war over the entry on global warming", in which a sceptic repeatedly "watered down" the article's explanation of the greenhouse effect.[17] He told the magazine that Wikipedia "gives no privilege to those who know what they’re talking about".[17] According to a 2010 article in the Journal of Science Communication, Connolley's case "resonated deeply as it highlighted what can befall respected experts who wade into controversial wiki-waters".[18]
Publications
- W. M. Connolley and S. A. Harangozo (2001) A comparison of five numerical weather prediction analysis climatologies in southern high latitudes, J. Climate, 14: 30–44.
- Turner, J, W Connolley, D Cresswell and S A Harangozo (2001). The simulation of Antarctic sea ice in the Hadley Centre climate model (HadCM3). Ann. Glaciol., 33: 585–591.
- Vaughan, D. G., G. J. Marshall, W. M. Connolley, J. C. King and R. Mulvaney (2001) Climate change — devil in the detail. Science, 293: 1777–1779.
- Tom A. Lachlan-Cope, William M. Connolley, and John Turner (2001) The Role of the Non-Axisymmetric Antarctic Orography in Forcing the Observed Pattern of Variability of the Antarctic Climate, Geophysical Research Letters, 28(21): 4111–4114.
- Connolley, W. M. (2002) Long-term variation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave. J. Geophys. Res., 107(8076).
- J. Turner, S. A. Harangozo, J. C. King, W. Connolley, T. Lachlan-Cope, and G. J. Marshall (2003) An exceptional winter sea ice retreat/advance in the Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica. Atmos. Ocean 41(2): 171–185.
- D. G. Vaughan, G. J. Marshall, W. M. Connolley, C. L. Parkinson, R. Mulvaney, D. A. Hodgson, J. C. King, C. J. Pudsey, and J. Turner. Recent rapid regional climate warming on the Antarctic Peninsula. Climatic Change, 60 (3): 243–274 October 2003
- Translation of Fourier 1827: Mémoire sur les temperatures du globe terrestre et des espaces planetaires [19]
- Connolley, W. M., J. M. Gregory, E. Hunke and A. J. Mclaren (2004), On The Consistent Scaling Of Terms In The Sea — Ice Dynamics Equation, J . Phys . Oceangr. 34 (7): 1776–1780 July 2004
- Marshall, G. J., P. A. Stott, J. Turner, W. M. Connolley, J. C. King and T. A. Lachlancope (2004), Causes Of Exceptional Atmospheric Circulation Changes In The Southern Hemisphere, Geophys. Res. Lett. 31(14): Art . No. L14205 July 30, 2004
- J. C. King, J. Turner, G. J. Marshall, W. M. Connolley, and T. A. Lachlan-Cope. Antarctic Peninsula climate variability and its causes as revealed by instrumental records. Antarctic Research Series v79, pp17–30.
- Connolley, W. M. Sea ice concentrations in the Weddell Sea: A comparison of SSM/I, ULS, and GCM data. GRL 32 (7): art. no. L07501 2 April 2005; see also Sea ice: What I do in my spare time for a popular exposition
References
- ^
Connolley, William M. (1989). "Preconditioning of iterative methods for linearized or linear systems. — D. Phil Thesis" (Document). Oxford: Oxford University Numerical Analysis Group. p. 208.
{{cite document}}: Unknown parameter|url=ignored (help) - ^ "Dr William Connolley / Senior Scientific Officer / Climate Modeller / Physical Sciences Division". British Antarctic Survey. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
- ^ Connolley, William M. "Sea ice concentrations in the Weddell Sea: A comparison of SSM/I, ULS, and GCM data" (PDF). Retrieved 26 October 2010.
- ^ William Connolley (24 January 2005). "The global cooling myth". RealClimate. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
- ^ William M. Connolley (2005). "Was an imminent Ice Age predicted in the '70's? No". Retrieved 2007-12-16.
- ^ Peterson, Thomas C. (2008). "The Myth of the 1970s Global Cooling Scientific Consensus". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 89 (9): 1325–1337. doi:10.1175/2008BAMS2370.1.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Connolley, William M. (6 December 2004). "William M. Connolley Filed under: * Contributor Bio's — william @ 6 December 2004". RealClimate. Archived from the original on 2007-08-16. Retrieved 2010-02-09.
- ^ Connolley, William (1 December 2007). "Goodbye to all that" – announcement of departure from RealClimate. RealClimate. Retrieved 26 October 2010.
- ^ William Connolley's personal website. wmconnolley.org.uk. Retrieved 26 October 2010.
- ^ Stoat Taking science by the throat..." Connolley's personal blog
- ^ "Connolley's webpage analysing papers relevant to a modern Ice Age". Wmconnolley.org.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ "Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Abd-William M. Connolley". Wikipedia. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
- ^ "I am all powerful (part 2)". Scienceblogs.com. 19 December 2009. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
- ^ "A child's garden of wikipedia, part I". Scienceblogs.com. 4 January 2010. Retrieved 26 October 2010.
- ^ Giles, Jim (15 December 2005). "Internet Encyclopaedias Go Head to Head". Nature. 438 (7070): 900–01. doi:10.1038/438900a. PMID 16355180.
- ^ Giles, Jim (October 5, 2006). "Wikipedia Rival Calls in the Experts". Nature. 443 (7111): 493. doi:10.1038/443493a. PMID 17024058.
- ^ a b Schiff, Stacy (31 July 2006). "Know It All: Can Wikipedia Conquer Expertise?". The New Yorker. Retrieved 26 October 2010.
- ^ Mathieu O'Neil: "Shirky and Sanger, or the costs of crowdsourcing". Journal of Science Communication, Volume 09, Issue 01, March 2010, International School for Advanced Studies
- ^ "William M. Connolley's page about Fourier 1827: MEMOIRE sur les temperatures du globe terrestre et des espaces planetaires". Wmconnolley.org.uk. Retrieved 2010-07-22.
External links
- Connolley's page at the British Antarctic Survey website
- Forte, Andrea; Bruckman, Amy (2008). "Scaling Consensus: Increasing Decentralization in Wikipedia Governance". Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2008): 157–157. doi:10.1109/HICSS.2008.383.