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William Connolley

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William Connolley
Connolley in June 2000 near Lescun
Born(1964-04-02)April 2, 1964
NationalityBritish
EducationM.A. (Oxon.), D.Phil. (Oxon.)
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
OccupationSoftware engineer
Known forResearch into climate change
Political partyGreen Party
WebsiteBritish Antarctic Survey

William Michael Connolley (born April 12, 1964) is a software engineer in Cambridge, England and a 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.

Biography

Connolley holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics and a DPhil from the University of Oxford for his work on numerical analysis.

His main research work focused on sea ice measurement and modelling, and global climate models (GCM) such as HadCM3. Since 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.

Political activity

Connolley served as a parish councillor in the village of Coton (near Cambridge, England) until May 2007. He was also a Green Party candidate for South Cambridgeshire District Council or Cambridgeshire County Council every year from 2001 to 2005.

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. Connolley was a member of the RealClimate website until 2007, and he operates a website and blog that discuss climate issues.

He has also been active on Misplaced Pages. An article in the British scientific journal Nature in 2005, comparing the reliability of Misplaced Pages and Encyclopedia Britannica, discussed Connolley as an example of an expert who regularly writes for the on-line encyclopedia. An October 2006 article in Nature contrasted Misplaced Pages with the Citizendium online encyclopedia project (which recruits experts from academia), quoting Connolley as saying that "some scientists have become frustrated with Misplaced Pages" but that "conflict can sometimes result in better articles".

Connolley's Misplaced Pages 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 skeptic repeatedly "watered down" the article's explanation of the greenhouse effect. His editing was also the subject of hearings by Misplaced Pages's arbitration committee after a complaint was filed that he was pushing his own point of view in an article by removing material representing opposing viewpoints. A "one-revert-a-day" editing restriction was imposed on him, but later revoked. He told The New Yorker that Misplaced Pages "gives no privilege to those who know what they’re talking about." In 2009 a Misplaced Pages arbitration committee found him guilty of violating a number of Misplaced Pages rules and his account had several restraints placed on it. Several articles have been critical of Connolley's Misplaced Pages editing and subsequent , including The American Spectator and The National Post. In September 2009, his administration privileges were revoked.

Publications

  • W. M. Connolley and S. A. Harangozo, A comparison of five numerical weather prediction analysis climatologies in southern high latitudes, J. Climate, v14, 1 January 2001, pp 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. Abstract: 7 September 2001
  • Tom A. Lachlan-Cope, William M. Connolley, and John Turner, The Role of the Non-Axisymmetric Antarctic Orography in Forcing the Observed Pattern of Variability of the Antarctic Climate, Geophysical Research Letters, 2001, v28 no 21, pp 4111–4114.
  • Connolley, W. M., 2002, Long-term variation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave, Connolley, W. M., doi:10.1029/2000JC000380, JGR 108(C4)
  • 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) 2003, 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: MEMOIRE sur les temperatures du globe terrestre et des espaces planetaires
  • 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

Notes

  1. W.M. Connolley, Preconditioning of iterative methods for linearised or linear systems (diss. Oxford, 1989).
  2. Connolley, William M. "Sea ice concentrations in the Weddell Sea: A comparison of SSM/I, ULS, and GCM data", Geophysical Research Letters, VOL. 32, 2 April, 2005
  3. Internet Archive copy of Coton Parish Website
  4. The Green Party South Cambs
  5. William Connolley (24 January 2005). "The global cooling myth". RealClimate. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
  6. William M. Connolley (2005). "Was an imminent Ice Age predicted in the '70's? No". Retrieved 2007-12-16.
  7. 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)
  8. William M. Connolley biography RealClimate
  9. Goodbye to all that Announcement of departure from RealClimate December 1, 2007RealClimate website
  10. William Connolley Personal website
  11. Stoat Taking science by the throat..." Connolley's personal blog
  12. Connolley's webpage analysing papers relevant to a modern Ice Age
  13. Giles, Jim (December 15, 2005). "Internet Encyclopaedias Go Head to Head". Nature. 438 (7070): 900–01. doi:10.1038/438900a. PMID 16355180.
  14. Giles, Jim (October 5, 2006). "Misplaced Pages Rival Calls in the Experts". Nature. 443 (7111): 493. doi:10.1038/443493a. PMID 17024058.
  15. ^ Schiff, Stacy (July 31, 2006). "Know It All: Can Misplaced Pages Conquer Expertise?". The New Yorker. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  16. http://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Abd-William_M._Connolley
  17. http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/30/wikipedia-meets-its-own-climat
  18. http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/12/18/lawrence-solomon-wikipedia-s-climate-doctor.aspx
  19. http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/12/23/lawrence-solomon-wikipedia-s-hockey-stick-wars.aspx
  20. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/19/more-on-wikipedia-and-connolley-hes-been-canned-as-a-wiki-administrator/#more-14331

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