Reliability of satellite data sets [2] (multiple letters)

IN THEIR REPORT “INFLUENCE OF SATELLITE data uncertainties on the detection of externally forced climate change” (23 May, p.1280), B. D. Santer et al. compare climate model output of atmospheric-layer temperature changes since 1978 with satellite based data sets from Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). They note that tropospheric model temperatures matched the RSS data better than the UAH data, mainly because RSS’s trend was more positive (+0.10, +0.01, and +0.07°C/decade for RSS, UAH, and models, respectively). The authors were careful to say that models cannot be used “to determine which of the two satellite data sets is closer to reality.”
However, the implication expressed in the Science press release for the Report—“A stubborn argument against global warming may be discredited by a reanalysis of the [UAH] data central to its claims…”—suggests otherwise.