NASA chief slaps down climate sceptic senator Malcolm Roberts: 'You hold a number of misconceptions'

One Nation's Malcolm Roberts
is 'mistaken' - NASA.

A senior NASA official has taken the extraordinary step of personally rejecting the claims of One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts that the agency had falsified key data to exaggerate warming in the Arctic.

Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told Senator Roberts he was "mistaken" in his assertion that the US agency had "removed" Arctic data to mask warming in the 1940s.

"You appear to hold a number of misconceptions which I am happy to clarify at this time," Dr Schmidt told Senator Roberts in letters and emails obtained by Fairfax Media. "The claim that GISS has 'removed the 1940s warmth' in the Arctic is not correct."

Dr Schmidt noted in his letter dated November 18 that the data was freely available on its website.

Read Peter Hannam’s story in today’s Melbourne Age – “NASA chief slaps down climate sceptic senator Malcolm Roberts: 'You hold a number of misconceptions'.”