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The public are being called upon to re-trace the routes taken by some 280 Royal Navy ships including historic vessels.
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This will help provide invaluable information about the past climate.
The project, called OldWeather.org, will also help fill in gaps in our knowledge of an important stage in British history.
"These naval logbooks contain an amazing treasure trove of information"By getting an army of online human volunteers to retrace these voyages and transcribe the information recorded by British sailors we can re-live both the climate of the past and key moments in naval history."but because the entries are handwritten they are incredibly difficult for a computer to read," said Dr Chris Lintott of Oxford University, one of the team behind OldWeather.org
Mobile weather stations
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"Unfortunately, the historical record is full of gaps, particularly from before 1920 and at sea, so this project is invaluable."
Most of the data about past climate comes from land-based weather monitoring stations which have been systematically recording data for over 150 years.
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Web volunteers are rewarded by rising through the ranks from cadet to captain of a particular ship, according to the number of pages they transcribe.
The project follows in the footsteps of previous "citizen science" projects such as Stardust@Home, Einstein@Home, Galaxy Zoo and Moon Zoo. It will also contribute to historical knowledge about WWI.
OldWeather.org features logbooks from historically important ships
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"Life in the trenches is well documented but the maritime struggle that took place during World War One is less well known," said historian Gordon Smith of Naval-History.Net.
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"We hope these new records will give people a fresh insight into naval history and encourage people to find out more about Britain's naval past and the role their relatives played in it."
Source:
BBC News, "WWI ships to chart past climate", accessed October 15, 2010
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