Polar vortices play a central role in coupling the atmosphere from the ground to the middle atmosphere. New satellite diagnostics describe mesospheric polar vortices and coupling to lower altitudes.
poles
Posted inResearch Spotlights
High-Altitude “Wind Walls” Discovered near Magnetic Poles
Satellite imaging reveals two narrow channels of extreme winds surrounded by gentle opposing flow 140–250 kilometers above sea level.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Evidence of Regional Deposition in Mars’s South Polar Deposits
Shallow Radar correlation of discrete units in one of the Red Planet’s largest ice reservoirs suggests that its material was emplaced as a single, regional deposit.
Posted inScience Updates
Training Early-Career Polar Weather and Climate Researchers
Polar Prediction School; Abisko Scientific Research Station, Sweden, 17–27 April 2018
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Sea Ice Loss Suppresses Some Effects of Climate Change
Polar amplification could counteract weather patterns shifting toward the poles.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Ocean Tides Affect Ice Loss from Large Polar Ice Sheets
A recent paper in Reviews of Geophysics discusses how ocean tides affect the motion of, and loss of ice from, the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.
Posted inNews
Polar Satellite Launch Eases Concerns of Weather Data Gap
Joint Polar Satellite System-1 is the first in a series of planned polar-orbiting satellites to provide critical weather forecasting data. Two follow-on satellites, however, face uncertain funding.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Juno Gets Spectacular View of Jupiter’s Aurora
The NASA spacecraft has taken images of Jupiter’s powerful aurora dancing around its poles, revealing never-before-seen details in their structure.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Time, Tides, and Wandering Poles
Models of Neptune’s moon Triton reveal curious behavior in how tidal forces and mass anomalies cause the poles to reorient their location.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mysterious Particle Beams Found over Jupiter’s Poles
The unexpected character of the beams, revealed by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, suggests that the processes that produce Jupiter’s auroras are unlike those on Earth.