This website works best with a newer web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer is not supported by this website.

CIMSS Satellite Blog

MENU

2016 Northern Hemisphere winter / Southern Hemisphere summer solstice

By Scott Bachmeier •

Meteosat-10 Visible (0.635 µm) images [click to enlarge]

Meteosat-10 Visible (0.635 µm) images [click to enlarge]

The 2016 Northern Hemisphere winter / Southern Hemisphere summer solstice occurred at 1044 UTC on 21 December. EUMETSAT Meteosat-10 Visible (0.635 µm) images (above; source) showed the westward progression of the solar terminator (which separates daylight from darkness) at 3-hour intervals.

Nearly the entire continent of Antarctica was illuminated by 24 hours of daylight, as seen on JMA Himawari-8 Visible (0.64 µm) images (below; also available as a 60 Mbyte animated GIF). Full-disk images are routinely available at 10-minute intervals from Himawari-8 (and can be available as frequently as every 5 minutes from the GOES-R series).

Himawari-8 Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play MP4 animation]

Himawari-8 Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play MP4 animation]

With the continuous daylight, Antarctic surface air temperatures from AMRC Automated Weather Stations (below; source) were seen to warm above 40ºF along the coast, and above -30ºF in the interior.

AMRC AWS station surface temperatures at 20 December (22 UTC) and 21 December (05 and 11 UTC) [click to enlarge]

AMRC AWS station surface temperatures at 20 December (22 UTC) and 21 December (05 and 11 UTC) [click to enlarge]

Categories: Antarctic, Himawari-8, Meteosat