1. In search of lost weather Crowdsourcing large-scale environmental data recovery for the North Pacific-Arctic region from 1850 to the satellite era Kevin R. Wood 1, Muyin Wang 1, Nancy N. Soreide 2, Philip Brohan 3, Mark C. Mollan 4, and the Old Weather Team 1 Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, University of Washington, 3737 Brooklyn Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98105 2 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory,7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115-6349, 3 Met Office Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB, United Kingdom 4 Old Navy/Maritime Reference, Archives 1 Reference Section, National Archives and Records Administration, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20408 The Revenue Cutter 'Bear' in the Arctic. Photo from the collection of the Coast Guard Museum NW. Shore ice on Diomedes Islands. 'Thetis' and whaling fleet waiting for chance to get north. Photo from the collection of the Coast Guard Museum NW. Officers of the Coast Guard Cutter 'Manning' - Lt. Parker, Lt. O'Conner, Dr. Hooker, Lt. Eberly. February 1916. Photo from the collection of the Coast Guard Museum NW.

2. The Arctic is changing … faster than the rest of the globe Loss of sea ice is one of the most recognizable characteristics of a “new Arctic” climate Impacts of these changes have been documented across the Arctic ecosystem Understanding of the present and future Arctic and global climate depends on our knowledge of past climate

3. Arctic data are sparse before the satellite era April 21, 2013 N 89° 07′ W 062° 18′ -23°C April 29, 1978 N 90° 00′ (from National Geographic Sept. 1978 Vol. 154 No. 3) North Pole Webcam Old sea ice Not so old

4. Prior to the satellite era … much of what we know is recorded in handwritten ship’s logbooks … trapped in hundreds of thousands of handwritten ship logbooks, field notebooks, personal and weather journals … carefully transcribed by past generations of mariners, explorers and scientists

5. Logbooks perilous journey Jeannette crushed, June 1881 Melville’s party De Long’s men carry the logbooks ashore through a mile of broken ice on the north end of the Lena River Delta, Siberia, 17 September 1881 One of four volumes at the National Archives, en route to Old Weather Saving the boats

6. Need to transform data (from ship logs) Need to transform old data (from ship logs) into Big Data (global reanalysis datasets) Sub-daily resolution required for new technology Old data converted to digital format on massive scale

7. Today, at the National Archives Imaging station at National Archives Imaging station at National Archives Creating digital images of the log book pages High resolution imaging station

8. 518,991high resolution images of handwritten log books 518,991 high resolution images of handwritten log books This project has identified and imaged the majority of all U.S. ship logbooks that pertain to the Arctic that remain in existence. These represent many thousands of ship-days of data collected by generations of mariners and scientists.

9. ? HOW do you get all those scribbles turned into DATA

10. Old Weather citizen-scientists www.oldweather.org sign in, take a tutorial, and start transcribing!

11. User interface built by Arfon & Co at ZOONIVERSE Transcription looks like this

12. Citizen science enlists members of the public to help in scientific research

13. This project has identified and imaged the majority of all U.S. ship logbooks that pertain to the Arctic that remain in existence. These represent many thousands of ship-days of data collected by generations of mariners and scientists. 2.6 million new-to-science weather records transcribed (so far)

14. whaling.oldweather.org New! Whaling ship logbooks Dec 2, 2015

15. More efficient user interface for Old Weather allows volunteers to contribute with a much lower initial threshold. Previous interface required too much time to learn to use & 1-page unit was too large for all but the most serious enthusiast. New improved interface makes transcribing weather records easier

16. Lost weather found! Weather data from the Jeannette’s logbooks 1879- 1881

17. Making the data useful Initial quality control of the transcription process is done automatically since every logbook is transcribed independently three times. More sophisticated methods are applied once the raw transcription files are transferred to the Hadley Centre, where errors in the original data such as off-scale typographical errors (i.e. wrong hemisphere, latitude greater than 90 degrees) are removed and other adjustments that may be necessary are made, such as reduction to standard units for example. The data are then written to IMMA format and transferred to NOAA National Climatic Data Center for inclusion in the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS). Integrated Water Vapor (cm) 500 hPa Heights Jul 1, 1889

18. History, adventure, plasma physics, unexpected botany, mutiny… Discovery of Jeannette Island Historical space weather Location & date of the brief appearance and subsequent disappearance of a volcanic island in the Bering Sea Observations of aurora are compiled for Solar Stormwatch Volcanic events reported to Alaska Volcano Observatory & Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program

19. Student Projects V. Underhill, JISAO undergraduate research internship Commack High School (New York) University of Washington Capstone project iSchool students Christopher Setzer and Amy Trost 1 st

20. www.pmel.noaa.gov/rediscover

21. Partnerships National Archives and Records Administration Old Weather - Citizen Science Alliance New Bedford Whaling Museum Providence Public Library NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) Many other partners and collaborators have made indispensable contributions to the project. NOAA Arctic Research Program Icelandic Met Office International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) Atmospheric Circulation Reconstruction over the Earth (ACRE) International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS) Joint Institute for Study of the Atmosphere and the Ocean (JISAO) Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) Support for the Arctic Rediscovery Project is provided by North Pacific Research Board (NPRB). www.pmel.noaa.gov/rediscover www.oldweather.org