rationalskepticism.org

Just A Theory wrote:

Light Storm wrote:
Said best by James Maxlow...

Space geodetics is modern technology that uses satellites and radio telescopes to routinely measure the dimensions of the Earth and plate motions of the continents to sub-centimetre accuracy. During the early 1990s, when enough ground stations were established to form a global network, the global excess in radius was found to be 18 mm/year – i.e. the measurements showed that the Earth was expanding by 18 mm/year.

This value was considered to be “extremely high” when compared to expected deglaciation rates during melting of the polar ice-caps, estimated at less than 10 mm/year. The researchers in fact "expected that most … stations will have up-down motions of only a few mm/yr" and went on to recommend the vertical motion be "restricted to zero, because this is closer to the true situation than an average motion of 18 mm/yr". This recommendation is now reflected in current mathematical solutions to the global radius, where global solutions are effectively constrained to zero.

These recommendations are justified from a constant Earth radius Plate Tectonic perspective. The 18 mm/year excess was considered to be an error in atmospheric correction, so was simply zeroed out. What must be appreciated is that without an acknowledgment of a potential increase in Earth radius NASA had no option but to correct this value to zero, and hence adopt a static Earth radius premise. From an Expansion Tectonic Earth perspective, however, the 18 mm/year excess equates with a present day value of 22 mm/year increase in Earth radius, determined independently from measurements of areas of sea floor spreading. ~James Maxlow ref: James Maxlows Home Page

I note that Maxlow has neglected to provide any citation or reference for his assertion of massive and systematic fabrication of data by NASA. I guess it doesn't really matter, not like it's a serious allegation or anything

Dinox wrote:I have a question for everyone. Several pages back Light Storm provided a link to some interesting GPS data provided by NASA.

Light Storm wrote:

http://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/mbh/series.html

You can see the movements clearly here, and these charts are often used by PT to justify a fixed earth radius. However, when you take a serious look at the the Cartesian Positions and Velocities, you will note that they not only have an X/Y scale, but also a Z for elevation increase/decrease

http://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/mbh/all/tables/table1.txt

You will note that a lot of them show positive increase of upwards of 24mm a year. A lot of these stations are set up on glaciers to record their decline. With several spot checks, a lot of the larger negative values are set up on such glaciers. Creating triangles on opposite poles of the equator, it was easy to figure out and conclude an earth expansion within Maxlows estimations for Earth expansion. Sadly this evidence is not as valid anymore since Nasa made the observation that the planet is bulging at the poles, and the mass is centring from the north/south poles. In order to properly go back and re-evaluate these observations, I would really love to see the raw data set, and correction factors used by Grace. Any link would be awesome.

Now James Maxlow in his book, Terra Non Firma Earth, explains that he believes that the raw data is routinely corrected to remove any assumed errors from a Constant Diameter Earth. In support of this he presents several graphs on pages 132 to 135 and in reference to Figure 46 he says, ‘the chart suggests that there was either a severe earthquake near Canberra … or there has been an arbitrary 71 millimetre adjustment to the vertical height of the observation site.’ The other charts show similar changes in elevations in other parts of the world.

Now just using the link provided by Light Storm,

http://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/mbh/series.html

… and clicking on a few data points to see the data, I can see for example that the vertical height GPS results from near Perth jump several times over the years.

http://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/mbh/all/plots/PERT.jpg

The graph shows a broken line running through the vertical data to show were the changes occurred. It looks like Perth should have experienced earthquakes in 1998, 2000 and 2003 judging by this GPS data.

There is even one of these graphs for the UK with a vertical change of about 3-4 mm in 2009 and we don’t have major earthquakes! See:

http://sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov/mbh/all/plots/NEWL.jpg

So my question is simply: what are these vertical corrections in the GPS data set on the NASA site?