Date:

US Navy ships from WWII provide new climate evidence

Researchers have recovered the logbooks from US Navy ships stationed at Pearl Harbour, providing new evidence for understanding how the global climate is changing.

The ships were bombed during the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, formally bringing the United States into WWII on the side of the Allies.

Of the eight U.S. Navy battleships present during the attack, all were damaged with four sunk. All but USS Arizona were later raised, with six battleships being returned to active service in the war effort. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, one minelayer, and numerous smaller vessels.

According to a new study published in the Geoscience Data Journal, researchers have recovered logbooks from 19 US Navy ships containing over 630,000 records, and more than 3 million weather observations documented between 1941 to 1945.

- Advertisement -

Dr. Praveen Teleti from the University of Reading, said: “Disruptions to trade routes in World War II led to a significant reduction in marine weather observations. Until recently, records from that time were still only available in classified paper documents. The scanning and rescuing of this data provides a window into the past, allowing us to understand how the world’s climate was behaving during a time of tremendous upheaval.”

During World War II, observations from naval vessels constituted the primary source of marine data. Unfortunately, many of these records were destroyed as acts of war or simply forgotten due to their classification.

The recovered dataset not only sheds light on the changes in observation practices during wartime, such as increased daytime observations to reduce exposure to enemy ships, but it also offers insights into a potential bias toward recording slightly warmer temperatures during these periods. This bias may have contributed to the perception of abnormal warmth in global datasets during World War II, a question that the new data will help to address.

According to the study authors: “Few or no other digitised observations exist from the Indo-Pacific and Far East during World War II. The rescued data will help scientists correct and fill gaps in existing datasets and ensure they can better understand how global climate has evolved since the early 20th century.”

University of Reading

Header Image Credit : Public Domain

- Advertisement -
Mark Milligan
Mark Milligan
Mark Milligan is an award winning journalist and the Managing Editor at HeritageDaily. His background is in archaeology and computer science, having written over 7,000 articles across several online publications. Mark is a member of the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) and in 2023 was the recipient of the British Citizen Award for Education and the BCA Medal of Honour.

Mobile Application

spot_img

Related Articles

Clusters of ancient qanats discovered in Diyala

An archaeological survey has identified three clusters of ancient qanats in the Diyala Province of Iraq.

16,800-year-old Palaeolithic dwelling found in La Garma cave

Archaeologists have discovered a 16,800-year-old Palaeolithic dwelling in the La Garma cave complex, located in the municipality of Ribamontán al Monte in Spain’s Cantabria province.

Burials found in Maya chultun

Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have uncovered burials within a chultun storage chamber at the Maya city of Ek' Balam.

Archaeologists analyse medieval benefits system

Archaeologists from the University of Leicester have conducted a study in the main cemetery of the hospital of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge, to provide new insights into the medieval benefits system.

Major archaeological discoveries in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

In an announcement by the State Office for Culture and Monument Preservation (LAKD), archaeologists excavating in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have uncovered seven Bronze Age swords, 6,000 silver coins, and two Christian reliquary containers.

Early humans hunted beavers 400,000-years-ago

Researchers suggests that early humans were hunting, skinning, and eating beavers around 400,000-years-ago.

Archaeologists find burial bundles with carved masks

A team of archaeologists from the PUCP Archaeology Program “Valley of Pachacámac” have uncovered over 70 intact burial bundles with carved masks.

Should the Elgin Marbles be returned?

The Elgin marbles are a collection of decorative marble sculptures taken from the temple of Athena (the Parthenon) on the Acropolis in Athens.