Coldest Place on Earth: New MODIS and Landsat 8 Thermal Data and Detailed Time Series of Cold Events
Abstract
Using new thermal time-series data from MODIS Collection 6, and with detailed thermal mapping in Antarctic winter using a revised processing algorithm for Landsat 8's Band 10 data, we have regenerated our analysis of ultra-cold sites in the East Antarctic Plateau. More than 18 MODIS observations are available each day, supporting a detailed analysis of the progression of surface skin temperature toward the coldest values and the break-up of the cold pattern afterward. The close match between Aqua and Terra temperature observations provide corroboration that the record low temperatures are real and consistently mapped. Multi-day trends for a series of ultra-cold events over the MODIS record, and concurrent climate reanalysis data, provide insight into the meteorology of the cold events. These events reach temperatures lower than -93°C (-135°F or 180K), and always occur under prolonged (tropospheric) cloud-free conditions. Winter acquisitions of Landsat 8 thermal images in 2013, 2014 and 2016 provide 100-meter resolution of the cold sites, showing in greater detail the spatial extent of the cold site areas seen in the MODIS 1 km data and their correlation with topography.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.C11B0771H
- Keywords:
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- 3305 Climate change and variability;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 3309 Climatology;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 3349 Polar meteorology;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 0762 Mass balance 0764 Energy balance;
- CRYOSPHERE