I’m glad I started the Climate Data Service, because it makes working with climate data easier. Even for me. I could access and study it before, but now it’s all in one place and one format, and the ease of use is a good motivator for closer study.
Something I’ve just been looking at is the relationship between sunspot counts and solar irradiance. I’ve used TSI (total solar irradiance) to estimate the influence of solar variations on global temperature, but reliable records don’t start until about 1976 when satellite observations began. Before that, we have to rely on proxies, of which the most common is sunspot counts. There are many reconstructions of solar irradiance which use more, but I’m not aware that any of them can be considered particularly better than the others.
Open Mind 