{"id":9445,"date":"2011-12-25T23:59:18","date_gmt":"2011-12-25T23:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=9445"},"modified":"2012-01-07T18:12:25","modified_gmt":"2012-01-07T18:12:25","slug":"all-time-record-high-temperature-at-the-south-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/9445","title":{"rendered":"All-time record high temperature at the South Pole"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NOAA-18<\/a>

NOAA-18 AVHRR false color Red\/Green\/Blue (RGB) image<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

On 25 December 2011<\/strong> a new all-time record high temperature of +9.9\u00c2\u00b0 F<\/tt> (-12.3\u00c2\u00b0 C<\/tt>)<\/strong> was set at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station<\/strong><\/a> — the previous all-time record high was +7.5\u00c2\u00b0 F<\/tt> (-13.6\u00c2\u00b0 C<\/tt>) on 27 December 1978. A NOAA-18 AVHRR false color Red\/Green\/Blue (RGB) image (above)<\/strong><\/em> displayed a variety of low cloud and high cloud features across the region at 11:17 UTC. Station identifier NZSP<\/strong> marks the location of the Amundsen-Scott station; the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf is at the top of the image.<\/p>\n

A listing of available NZSP surface reports is shown below — the maximum temperature actually occurred at 02:50 UTC (15:50 local time)<\/em>. Note that there was also snow (S), light snow grains (SG-), or ice crystals (IC) being reported during much of the day that experienced the record high temperature!<\/p>\n

\"NZSP<\/a>

NZSP surface reports<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"NOAA-18<\/a>

NOAA-18 AVHRR 3.7 \u00c2\u00b5m shortwave IR image<\/p><\/div>\n

A NOAA-18 AVHRR 3.7 \u00c2\u00b5m shortwave IR image (above)<\/strong><\/em> depicted a number of patches of low altitude clouds composed of supercooled water droplets — these low cloud features appeared darker<\/strong> (warmer)<\/em> since the shortwave IR channel is also sensitive\u00c2\u00a0 to the reflection of solar radiation off the cloud tops.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the corresponding NOAA-18 AVHRR 10.8 \u00c2\u00b5m IR image (below)<\/strong><\/em> showed that there were high altitude cirrus clouds (cyan to dark blue color enhancement)<\/em> in the vicinity of station NZSP. These high cirrus clouds could have been contributing to a “seeder-feeder effect” to help produce the periods of light precipitation that were observed on that day.<\/p>\n

\"NOAA-18<\/a>

NOAA-18 AVHRR 10.8 \u00c2\u00b5m IR image<\/p><\/div>\n

A EUMETSAT MetOp-A false color Red\/Green\/Blue (RGB) image (below; courtesy of Dave Santek, SSEC)<\/strong><\/em> showed the cloud features over the South Pole region at 02:52 UTC (very close to the time of the record high temperture).<\/p>\n

\"MetOp-A<\/a>

MetOp-A false color Red\/Green\/Blue (RGB) image<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

For additional satellite images and information on this event, see the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center “On the Ice” blog<\/a><\/strong> and The Antarctic Sun<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  On 25 December 2011 a new all-time record high temperature of +9.9\u00c2\u00b0 F (-12.3\u00c2\u00b0 C) was set at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station — the previous all-time record high was +7.5\u00c2\u00b0 F (-13.6\u00c2\u00b0 C) on 27 December 1978. A NOAA-18 AVHRR false color Red\/Green\/Blue (RGB) image (above) displayed a variety of low cloud and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,22,47,26,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antarctic","category-avhrr","category-other-satellites","category-poes","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9445"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9447,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445\/revisions\/9447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}