Roy Spencer (meteorologist)

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Roy Warren Spencer (born December 20, 1955)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is an American meteorologist and climate scientist.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He is a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and the U.S. Science Team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) on NASA's Aqua satellite.<ref name=nasa>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=statement>Template:Cite web</ref> He has served as senior scientist for climate studies at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.<ref name=nasa /><ref name=statement /> He is known for his satellite-based temperature monitoring work, for which he was awarded the American Meteorological Society's Special Award.<ref name=statement/> Regarding climate change, Spencer is a "lukewarmer", with the view that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have caused some warming, but that influence is small compared to natural variations in global average cloud cover. He wrote several political books slamming what he calls "hysteria" about climate change, he says hurt both science and the people.

Education and career

Spencer received a BS in atmospheric sciences from the University of Michigan in 1978 and his MS and PhD in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1980 and 1982.<ref name=nasa /> His doctoral thesis was titled, A case study of African wave structure and energetics during Atlantic transit.<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref>

After receiving his PhD in 1982, Spencer worked for two years as a research scientist in the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.<ref name=nasa /> He then joined NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center as a visiting scientist in 1984,<ref name=statement /> where he later became senior scientist for climate studies. After leaving NASA in 2001, Spencer has been a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). As well as his position at UAH, Spencer is currently the U.S. Science Team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) on NASA's Aqua satellite, a position he has held since 1994.<ref name=nasa />

In 2001, he designed an algorithm to detect tropical cyclones and estimate their maximum sustained wind speed using the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Spencer has been a member of several science teams: the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Space Station Accommodations Analysis Study Team, Science Steering Group for TRMM, TOVS Pathfinder Working Group, NASA Headquarters Earth Science and Applications Advisory Subcommittee, and two National Research Council (NRC) study panels.<ref name=nasa /> He is on the board of directors of the George C. Marshall Institute,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and on the board of advisors of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Spencer's research work is funded by NASA, NOAA, DOE, and the DOT.<ref name="statement" /> He also received money from Peabody Energy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Peer-reviewed articles on climate change

Negative cloud feedback

In 2007, Spencer and others published a paper in Geophysical Research Letters regarding negative cloud feedback in the tropics that potentially supports Richard Lindzen's Iris hypothesis, which proposes that as the tropical atmosphere warms, cirrus clouds decrease, allowing infrared heat to escape from the atmosphere to outer space.<ref name="autogenerated1">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=milloy>Template:Cite web</ref> Spencer stated, "To give an idea of how strong this enhanced cooling mechanism is, if it was operating on global warming, it would reduce estimates of future warming by over 75 percent. [...] Right now, all climate models predict that clouds will amplify warming. I'm betting that if the climate models' 'clouds' were made to behave the way we see these clouds behave in nature, it would substantially reduce the amount of climate change the models predict for the coming decades."<ref name=milloy/><ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

Cloud formation and temperature change

In 2008, Spencer and William Braswell published a paper in the Journal of Climate which suggests that natural variations in how clouds form could actually be causing temperature changes, rather than the other way around, and could also lead to overestimates of how sensitive the Earth's climate is to greenhouse gas emissions.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Spencer stated, "Our paper is an important step toward validating a gut instinct that many meteorologists like myself have had over the years, [...] that the climate system is dominated by stabilizing processes, rather than destabilizing processes – that is, negative feedback rather than positive feedback."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Energy lost to space as compared to climate models

In 2011, Spencer and Braswell published a paper in Remote Sensing concluding that more energy is radiated back to space and released earlier than previously thought.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=orlowski>Template:Cite news</ref> Spencer stated, "The satellite observations suggest there is much more energy lost to space during and after warming than the climate models show. There is a huge discrepancy between the data and the forecasts that is especially big over the oceans."<ref name=orlowski/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The paper was criticized by climate scientists.<ref name=borenstein>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Kerry Emanuel of MIT, said this work was cautious and limited mostly to pointing out problems with forecasting heat feedback, and that the interpretations of the study by non-scientists have "no basis in reality."<ref name=borenstein />

The editor-in-chief of Remote Sensing, Wolfgang Wagner, later resigned over publication of Spencer and Braswell (2011),<ref name=hickman>Template:Cite news</ref> stating, "From a purely formal point of view, there were no errors with the review process. [...] the problem I see with the paper by Spencer and Braswell is not that it declared a minority view ...but that it essentially ignored the scientific arguments of its opponents. This latter point was missed in the review process, explaining why I perceive this paper to be fundamentally flawed and therefore wrongly accepted by the journal."<ref name=wagner>Template:Cite journal</ref> Wagner added he, "would also like to personally protest against how the authors and like-minded climate skeptics have much exaggerated the paper's conclusions in public statements".<ref name=hickman /><ref name=wagner />

Andrew Dessler later published a paper opposing the claims of Spencer and Braswell (2011) in Geophysical Research Letters.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He stated, among other things: Template:Blockquote

Views

Climate change

Spencer has published two books on climate change: In 2008, Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor,<ref>Climate Confusion</ref> and in 2010, The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled the World's Top Climate Scientists.<ref>Bickmore, Barry (February 27, 2011). "Roy Spencer's Great Blunder, Part 1". Skeptical Science.</ref><ref>Ghan, Steve (April 28, 2011). "Review of Spencer's ‘Great Global Warming Blunder’". RealClimate.</ref>

He believes that most climate change is natural in origin, the result of long-term changes in the Earth's albedo and that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have caused some warming, but that its warming influence is small compared to natural, internal, chaotic fluctuations in global average cloud cover.<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> At that time the IPCC hold the view that "Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic GHG concentrations".<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

In February 2014 Spencer posted on his blog that he was going to start referring to those who referred to those questioning the mainstream view of global warming (such as Spencer himself) as "climate change deniers" as "global warming Nazis", contending that "...these people are supporting policies that will kill far more people than the Nazis ever did."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Anti-Defamation League responded with a statement condemning Spencer's comparison. Shelley Rose, the ADL's Southeast Interim Regional Director, argued that the comparison of global warming advocates to Nazis was "outrageous and deeply offensive," and "This analogy is just the latest example of a troubling epidemic of comparisons to Hitler and the Holocaust."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2025, Spencer co-authored "A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate", which is a report written for the U.S. Energy Secretary Christopher Wright.<ref name="energy.gov">A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the US Climate, United States Department of Energy, 23 July 2025</ref>

Intelligent design

Spencer believes in the pseudoscience of intelligent design which was criticized by Phil Plait, in Slate as advocating "warmed-over creationism".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Spencer's views on the matter were used as an example in an exploration by the Christian Science Monitor as a possible connection between climate change denial and creationism.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Awards

  • 1989 – Marshall Space Flight Center Center Director's Commendation<ref name=nasa />
  • 1990 – Alabama House of Representatives Resolution #624<ref name=statement />
  • 1991 – NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (with John Christy)<ref name=nasa />
  • 1996 – American Meteorological Society Special Award "for developing a global, precise record of earth's temperature from operational polar-orbiting satellites, fundamentally advancing our ability to monitor climate." (with John Christy)<ref name=nasa /><ref name=statement /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

Selected publications

Articles

Books

Peer-reviewed papers

In 2025, with John Christy, Judith Curry, Steven E. Koonin, and Ross McKitrick, Spencer was a member of the United States Department of Energy's Climate Working Group and a co-author of its A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the US Climate (23 July 2025)<ref name="energy.gov"/>

References

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