The Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis was resupplying at Mawson Station along the Indian Ocean coast of Antarctica (map) when a strong storm (surface analysis) producing blizzard conditions — with winds as high as 86 knots gusting to 98 knots at 0936 UTC — caused it to break free from its mooring lines... Read More

 On 25 December 2011 a new all-time record high temperature of +9.9° F (-12.3° C) was set at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station — the previous all-time record high was +7.5° F (-13.6° C) on 27 December 1978. A NOAA-18 AVHRR false color Red/Green/Blue... Read More

The “spinning globe” satellite image montage (above; click image to play animation) showed the cloud formations around the planet on Earth Day (22 April 2011). This product is created by combining data from 5 of the currently operational geostationary orbiting meteorological satellites (GOES-East at 75º West longitude, GOES-West at 135º... Read More

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, a large portion of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in the Antarctic (map) began to collapse during late February and early March 2008. A Terra MODIS visible image (above; courtesy of Shelley Knuth, SSEC Antarctic Meteorological Research Center) shows the extent of ice shelf disintegration on 10 March 2008.The latest real-time IR... Read More