Ships bombed at Pearl Harbor more than 80 years ago provided weather data that could help understand climate change.
Logbooks of American ships targeted by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 have proven to be a treasure for scientists today.
Many damaged boats returned to service after the surprise attack, which led the Americans into World War II, and continued to collect data, including sea surface temperature and wind speed .
“The war was all around them, but they still did their job with such professionalism,” said researcher Praveen Teleti, a scientist who conducted new research on the information collected by the crews.
The ships included the USS Pennsylvania, which lost nine servicemen in the bombardment, and the USS Tennessee, which lost five.
Both returned to service despite direct hits.
Their continued commitment to meteorological data collection was essential, as overall observations were greatly reduced during the war due to the disruption of trade routes.
Dr Teleti’s project encompasses recordings from 19 vessels, covering more than three million individual observations.
Volunteers transcribed some 28,000 images from logbooks, helping to paint a picture of the climate in the Pacific between 1941 and 1945.
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“A period of considerable upheaval”
Surviving observations suggest that more data was collected during the day as the war raged, so that crews would reduce their exposure to enemy ships.
It is thought that such changes could have resulted in slightly higher temperatures, meaning that today’s history books show a period of abnormal heat.
Dr Teleti, from the University of Reading, said the data would help scientists “understand how the global climate was behaving in a time of considerable upheaval”.
“The greatest respect must be given to the brave soldiers who recorded this data,” he added.
The results were published in the Geoscience Data Journal.
Ships bombed at Pearl Harbor more than 80 years ago provided weather data that could help understand climate change.
Logbooks of American ships targeted by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 have proven to be a treasure for scientists today.
Many damaged boats returned to service after the surprise attack, which led the Americans into World War II, and continued to collect data, including sea surface temperature and wind speed .
“The war was all around them, but they still did their job with such professionalism,” said researcher Praveen Teleti, a scientist who conducted new research on the information collected by the crews.
The ships included the USS Pennsylvania, which lost nine servicemen in the bombardment, and the USS Tennessee, which lost five.
Both returned to service despite direct hits.
Their continued commitment to meteorological data collection was essential, as overall observations were greatly reduced during the war due to the disruption of trade routes.
Dr Teleti’s project encompasses recordings from 19 vessels, covering more than three million individual observations.
Volunteers transcribed some 28,000 images from logbooks, helping to paint a picture of the climate in the Pacific between 1941 and 1945.
Read more climate news:
Major retailer ditches all plastic bags
Toxic algae poisons UK and Ireland’s largest lake
“A period of considerable upheaval”
Surviving observations suggest that more data was collected during the day as the war raged, so that crews would reduce their exposure to enemy ships.
It is thought that such changes could have resulted in slightly higher temperatures, meaning that today’s history books show a period of abnormal heat.
Dr Teleti, from the University of Reading, said the data would help scientists “understand how the global climate was behaving in a time of considerable upheaval”.
“The greatest respect must be given to the brave soldiers who recorded this data,” he added.
The results were published in the Geoscience Data Journal.
