RIP Seymour Laxon

Professor Seymour Laxon | Mallemaroking

[comment] Seymour died following falling down a flight of stairs in the early hours of new year’s day following a lovely evening with friends at place he loved. He hit the side of his head leading to massive bleeding in his brain. He died today in hospital in Chelmsford. I have family and friends with me and am trying to support Imogen through this – it’s going to be a long haul.

Aug. 2012: Arctic ICE PANIC sparked by half-baked sat data • The Register

Listeners to Radio 4's Today programme - and this includes much of the political elite - will have been alarmed to be told that "the Arctic could be ice-free on a summer’s day by the end of the decade".

Yet the evidence for this "trend" turns out to be drawn from less than two years worth of data.

Dr Seymour Laxon of University College London raised the alarm using radar altimeter observations made by the European-funded Cryosat-2 satellite, a project he helped devise. This allows scientists to gain more accurate mapping of the sea floor and also sea ice extent and thickness.

Cryosat-2 began observing the Arctic ice cap in October 2010, and has been acquiring data since. So scientists have two winter seasons and one summer season on which to base any claims.