cc: "David C. Bader" <bader2@llnl.gov>, Bill Goldstein <goldstein3@llnl.gov>, Tomas Diaz De La Rubia <delarubia@llnl.gov>, Hal Graboske <graboske1@llnl.gov>, Cherry Murray <murray38@llnl.gov>, mann <mann@psu.edu>, "Michael C. MacCracken" <mmaccrac@comcast.net>, Bill Fulkerson <wfulk@utk.edu>, Professor Glenn McGregor <g.mcgregor@auckland.ac.nz>, Luca Delle Monache <ldm@llnl.gov>, "Hack, James J." <jhack@ornl.gov>, Thomas C Peterson <Thomas.C.Peterson@noaa.gov>, vladeckd@law.georgetown.edu, miller21@llnl.gov, Michael Wehner <mfwehner@lbl.gov>, "Bamzai, Anjuli" <Anjuli.Bamzai@science.doe.gov>
date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:38:02 -0800
from: Ben Santer <santer1@llnl.gov>
subject: FOIA request
to: "Thorne, Peter" <peter.thorne@metoffice.gov.uk>, Leopold Haimberger <leopold.haimberger@univie.ac.at>, Karl Taylor <taylor13@llnl.gov>, Tom Wigley <wigley@cgd.ucar.edu>, John Lanzante <John.Lanzante@noaa.gov>, Susan Solomon <ssolomon@frii.com>, Melissa Free <Melissa.Free@noaa.gov>, peter gleckler <gleckler1@llnl.gov>, "'Philip D. Jones'" <p.jones@uea.ac.uk>, Thomas R Karl <Thomas.R.Karl@noaa.gov>, Steve Klein <klein21@mail.llnl.gov>, carl mears <mears@remss.com>, Doug Nychka <nychka@ucar.edu>, Gavin Schmidt <gschmidt@giss.nasa.gov>, Steven Sherwood <Steven.Sherwood@yale.edu>, Frank Wentz <frank.wentz@remss.com>

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Dear co-authors,

I just wanted to alert you to the fact that Steven McIntyre has now made 
a request to U.S. DOE Headquarters under the Freedom of Information Act 
(FOIA). McIntyre asked for "Monthly average T2LT values for the 47 
climate models (sic) as used to test the H1 hypothesis in Santer et al., 
Consistency of modelled and observed temperature trends in the tropical 
troposphere". I was made aware of the FOIA request earlier this morning.

McIntyre's request eventually reached the U.S. DOE National Nuclear 
Security Administration (NNSA), Livermore Site Office. The requested 
records are to be provided to the "FOIA Point of Contact" (presumably at 
NNSA) by Dec. 22, 2008.

McIntyre's request is poorly-formulated and misleading. As noted in the 
Santer et al. paper cited by McIntyre, we examined "a set of 49 
simulations of twentieth century climate change performed with 19 
different models". McIntyre confuses the number of 20th century 
realizations analyzed in our paper (49, not 47!) with the number of 
climate models used to generate those realizations (19). This very basic 
mistake does not inspire one with confidence about McIntyre's 
understanding of climate models, or his ability to undertake meaningful 
analysis of climate model results.

Over the past several weeks, I've had a number of discussions about the 
"FOIA issue" with PCMDI's Director (Dave Bader), with other LLNL 
colleagues, and with colleagues outside of the Lab. Based on these 
discussions, I have decided to "publish" all of the climate model 
surface temperature time series and synthetic MSU time series (for the 
tropical lower troposphere [T2LT] and the tropical mid- to 
upper-troposphere [T2]) that we used in our International Journal of 
Climatology (IJoC) paper. This will involve putting these datasets 
through an internal "Review and Release" procedure, and then placing the 
datasets on PCMDI's publicly-accessible website. The website will also 
provide information on how synthetic Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) 
temperatures were calculated, anomaly definition, analysis periods, etc.

After publication of the model data, we will inform the "FOIA Point of 
Contact" that the information requested by McIntyre is publicly 
available for bona fide scientific research.

Unfortunately, we cannot guard against intentional or unintentional 
misuse of these datasets by McIntyre or others.

By publishing the T2, T2LT, and surface temperature data, we will be 
providing far more than the "Monthly average T2LT values" mentioned in 
McIntyre's FOIA request to DOE. This will make it difficult for McIntyre 
to continue making the bogus claim that he is being denied access to the 
climate model data necessary to evaluate the validity of our findings. 
All of the raw model output used in our IJoC paper are already available 
to Mr. McIntyre (as I informed him several months ago), as are the 
algorithms required to calculate synthetic MSU temperatures from raw 
model temperature data.

I hope that "publication" of the synthetic MSU temperatures resolves 
this matter to the satisfaction of NNSA, DOE Headquarters, and LLNL.

With best regards,

Ben
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Benjamin D. Santer
Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
P.O. Box 808, Mail Stop L-103
Livermore, CA 94550, U.S.A.
Tel:   (925) 422-3840
FAX:   (925) 422-7675
email: santer1@llnl.gov
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