Abstract :
The Clear Climate Code project rewrote GISTEMP, a legacy software system used to produce an important global surface temperature dataset. The focus of the project is on clarity: making the source code as clear as possible to interested people, to improve public understanding. The result is a Python package that´s easy to understand, run, and change, which allows any interested person to pose and answer novel research questions. In the process, the project´s founders also discovered and fixed some inconsequential bugs and hopefully improved online discussion of global warming.
Keywords :
climatology; environmental science computing; meteorology; software maintenance; GISTEMP; Python package; clear climate code project; global surface temperature dataset; global warming; legacy science software rewriting; legacy software system; Atmospheric measurements; Computer bugs; Global warming; Legacy systems; Meteorology; Ocean temperature; Software development; Temperature measurement; Earth and atmospheric sciences; climate change; computer applications; documentation; enhancement; maintenance; physical sciences and engineering; portability; reengineering distribution; restructuring; reverse engineering; software; software engineering; software psychology;
