I found this interesting article at http://unisci.com/ . I am not sure of their
affiliations but the site looks interesting.

Now that the data are all in:

Chuck Dolci


Year 2001 Only Slightly Warmer Than Average: Study

The 2001 calendar year was slightly warmer than "average," according to global
climate data gathered by instruments aboard NOAA satellites.

The composite global temperature for 2001 was 0.06 degrees C (about 0.11 degrees
Fahrenheit) warmer than the 20-year (1979-to-1998) average, said Dr. John
Christy, a professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System
Science Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).

Compared to other years, 2001 was the ninth warmest (and the 15th coolest) since
satellite instruments started gathering global climate data from the bottom
eight kilometers of the atmosphere in January 1979.

The hottest year in the satellite dataset was 1998 at 0.46 degrees C (about 0.83
degrees F) warmer than normal. The coldest year was 1984, which was 0.26 degrees
C (about 0.46 degrees F) cooler than normal.

While the 2001 composite temperature was above average, the climate map for the
year is dominated by a band of slightly cooler than normal temperatures covering
the tropics from the Central Pacific eastward through South America, the
Atlantic Ocean and Africa into the Indian Ocean.

Warmer than normal temperatures spotted the subtropics and temperate regions of
the globe. For the year, the area with temperatures that were above normal by
the greatest amount was Canada and the northern tier of U.S. states. An area
around Hudson Bay was more than 1.75 degrees C (about 3.2 degrees F) warmer than
its normal annual temperature.

Other regions with warmer than normal temperatures were found in North Africa,
Eastern Europe, Russia, parts of the North Pacific and the Southern oceans.

As part of an ongoing joint project between UAH, NOAA and NASA, Christy and Dr.
Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist in UAH's Earth System Science
Center, use data gathered by microwave sounding units on NOAA satellites to get
accurate temperature readings for most regions of the Earth -- including remote
desert, ocean and rain forest areas for which reliable climate data are not
otherwise available.

The satellite instruments look at microwaves emitted by oxygen molecules in the
atmosphere. These microwave emissions vary according to temperature, giving
precise indications of temperatures over broad regions of the atmosphere from
the surface up to an altitude of about eight kilometers above sea level.

Neither Christy nor Spencer receives any research support or funding from oil,
coal or industrial companies or organizations, or from any private or special
interest groups. - By Phillip Gentry