Query: Though CRU neglected to provide an exact list of temperature stations, it could not have hid or tampered with data.

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Data visualization <=SEP=> Data visualization or data visualisation is viewed by many disciplines as a modern equivalent of visual communication . It involves the creation and study of the visual representation of data , meaning `` information that has been abstracted in some schematic form , including attributes or variables for the units of information '' .   A primary goal of data visualization is to communicate information clearly and efficiently via statistical graphics , plots and information graphics . Numerical data may be encoded using dots , lines , or bars , to visually communicate a quantitative message . Effective visualization helps users analyze and reason about data and evidence . It makes complex data more accessible , understandable and usable . Users may have particular analytical tasks , such as making comparisons or understanding causality , and the design principle of the graphic ( i.e. , showing comparisons or showing causality ) follows the task . Tables are generally used where users will look up a specific measurement , while charts of various types are used to show patterns or relationships in the data for one or more variables .   Data visualization is both an art and a science . It is viewed as a branch of descriptive statistics by some , but also as a grounded theory development tool by others . Increased amounts of data created by Internet activity and an expanding number of sensors in the environment are referred to as `` big data '' or Internet of things . Processing , analyzing and communicating this data present ethical and analytical challenges for data visualization . The field of data science and practitioners called data scientists help address this challenge .

Climatic Research Unit email controversy <=SEP=> The Climatic Research Unit email controversy ( also known as `` Climategate '' ) began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) by an external attacker , copying thousands of emails and computer files , the Climatic Research Unit documents , to various internet locations several weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change .   The story was first broken by climate change denialists with columnist James Delingpole popularising the term `` Climategate '' to describe the controversy . Several people considered climate change `` skeptics '' argued that the emails showed global warming was a scientific conspiracy , that scientists manipulated climate data and attempted to suppress critics . The CRU rejected this , saying the emails had been taken out of context and merely reflected an honest exchange of ideas .   The mainstream media picked up the story as negotiations over climate change mitigation began in Copenhagen on 7 December 2009 . Because of the timing , scientists , policy makers and public relations experts said that the release of emails was a smear campaign intended to undermine the climate conference . In response to the controversy , the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) , the American Meteorological Society ( AMS ) and the Union of Concerned Scientists ( UCS ) released statements supporting the scientific consensus that the Earth 's mean surface temperature had been rising for decades , with the AAAS concluding , `` based on multiple lines of scientific evidence that global climate change caused by human activities is now underway ... it is a growing threat to society . ''   Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . However , the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work , for example by opening up access to their supporting data , processing methods and software , and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations .

Data mining <=SEP=> Data mining is the computing process of discovering patterns in large data sets involving methods at the intersection of artificial intelligence , machine learning , statistics , and database systems . It is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science . The overall goal of the data mining process is to extract information from a data set and transform it into an understandable structure for further use . Aside from the raw analysis step , it involves database and data management aspects , data pre-processing , model and inference considerations , interestingness metrics , complexity considerations , post-processing of discovered structures , visualization , and online updating . Data mining is the analysis step of the `` knowledge discovery in databases '' process , or KDD .   The term is a misnomer , because the goal is the extraction of patterns and knowledge from large amounts of data , not the extraction ( mining ) of data itself .  It also is a buzzword and is frequently applied to any form of large-scale data or information processing ( collection , extraction , warehousing , analysis , and statistics ) as well as any application of computer decision support system , including artificial intelligence , machine learning , and business intelligence . The book Data mining : Practical machine learning tools and techniques with Java ( which covers mostly machine learning material ) was originally to be named just Practical machine learning , and the term data mining was only added for marketing reasons . Often the more general terms ( large scale ) data analysis and analytics -- or , when referring to actual methods , artificial intelligence and machine learning -- are more appropriate .   The actual data mining task is the automatic or semi-automatic analysis of large quantities of data to extract previously unknown , interesting patterns such as groups of data records ( cluster analysis ) , unusual records ( anomaly detection ) , and dependencies ( association rule mining , sequential pattern mining ) . This usually involves using database techniques such as spatial indices . These patterns can then be seen as a kind of summary of the input data , and may be used in further analysis or , for example , in machine learning and predictive analytics . For example , the data mining step might identify multiple groups in the data , which can then be used to obtain more accurate prediction results by a decision support system . Neither the data collection , data preparation , nor result interpretation and reporting is part of the data mining step , but do belong to the overall KDD process as additional steps .   The related terms data dredging , data fishing , and data snooping refer to the use of data mining methods to sample parts of a larger population data set that are ( or may be ) too small for reliable statistical inferences to be made about the validity of any patterns discovered . These methods can , however , be used in creating new hypotheses to test against the larger data populations .