It’s been an unsettled winter in the atmosphere above Antarctica.
It’s been an unsettled winter in the atmosphere above Antarctica. About 30 kilometers above the continent’s icy surface, in the layer known as the stratosphere, a series of warming events took place starting in July 2024.
July temperatures in the stratosphere above Antarctica are typically around minus 80 degrees Celsius (minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit). On July 7, temperatures in the middle of the stratosphere jumped 15°C (27°F), setting a record for the warmest July temperatures observed in the stratosphere in the Antarctic region. The temperature then cooled off on July 22 before rising 17°C (31°F) on August 5.
These sudden stratospheric warming events surprised Lawrence Coy and Paul Newman, atmospheric scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Coy and Newman develop complex data assimilation and reanalysis models of Earth’s atmosphere for NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO). “The July event was the earliest stratospheric warming ever observed in GMAO’s entire 44-year record,” Coy said.
Read more at NASA Earth Observatory
Image: NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using GEOS-FP data courtesy of Lawrence Coy and the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC.
