Earth  ID: 11411

Stormy Coasts

Story by Maria-Jose Vinas Garcia Released on December 3, 2013
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At the bottom of Earth, storms sweep around Antarctica.
Antarctica is a hot spot for stormy weather. The constant mixing of warm and cold air happening above ocean waters miles from its shores generates fierce storms that circle the ice-covered continent. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a storm drifting over the South Pole. Storms are restricted to the coasts due to the extreme cold and high elevation of Antarctica’s interior, which blocks storms from penetrating inland. As a result, the center of the ice sheet is a large polar desert that receives less than 0.2 inches of precipitation per year. Watch the video to see a NASA supercomputer climate model simulation that shows the movement of clouds and storm systems around Antarctica.
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This simulation shows 11 days of cloud movement during February 2010.
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Antarctic storms gather in the Ross Sea and Weddell Sea.
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Features of Antarctica's ice sheet, including its elevated interior, are made visible in this composite radar image.
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Clouds mask the edges of Antarctica in this mosaic created from images taken by NASA’s Terra satellite.
 

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Clouds over Antarctica

Story Credits

Visualizers/Animators:
Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
Ernie Wright (USRA)

Producer:
Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA)

Lead Scientist:
William Putman (NASA/GSFC)

Lead Writer:
Maria-Jose Vinas Garcia (Telophase)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Continent map courtesy of NASA/USGS/NSF/BAS
Radar image courtesy of NASA/Canadian Space Agency/Ohio State University
Satellite image courtesy of NASA/GSFC/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team/Jeff Schmaltz

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11411

Keywords:
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Earth