How do scientists know their data-processing techniques are reliable?

The global temperature records calculated by major climate research organizations in the U.S. and other countries show remarkably similar trends, even though they use different methods to process the data. Organizations like NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the British Meteorological Office's Hadley Centre/Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia (CRU), and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, are highly respected in the field. They not only use peer-reviewed techniques but also subject their processed data to extensive peer-reviewed analyses.

An independent nonprofit organization, Berkeley Earth, funded by educational grants, has devised its own data-processing techniques to deal with the abovementioned changes. Again, the results are very similar to those from NCDC, GISS, and the CRU.