Skip Navigation
menu close modal
Multimedia

Polar Vortex – Air Temperature at 500 hPa, January-March 2019

Source: Thomas Pagano, NASA-JPL/Caltech
Published: February 25, 2020

AIRS Level 3 Daily Temperatures at 500 mb for January, February and March 2019. Ascending and Descending orbits are averaged.

Related

NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) captured views of Hurricane Ida, both before it made landfall in the early morning hours (2:53 CDT) and approximately two hours after the storm's landfall...
More
infrared image Hurricane Ida before making landfall
AIRS captures Hurricane Ida before and after landfall
This animation shows how light energy is collected by the optics system on the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument and digitized.
More
This animation shows how light energy is collected by the optics system on the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument and digitized.
Light Travels Through AIRS Optics
Data visualization of global carbon dioxide (CO2) for the period September 2002-March 2022, showcasing data products from NASA's Aqua mission.
More
Data visualization of global carbon dioxide (CO2) for the period September 2002-March 2022, showcasing data products from NASA's Aqua mission.
20 years of AIRS Global Carbon Dioxide measurements (2002-2022)
The AIRS sounder reveals important new information to supplement the familiar overhead views of hurricanes that come from satellites. Here AIRS shows some of the internal temperature structure of S...
More
Supertyphoon Pongsona Isotherms
Supertyphoon Pongsona Isotherms
Monthly AIRS temperature anomaly over the AIRS record (2002-2020) aggregated into five vertical categories.
More
Globes and time series showing temperature anomalies.
AIRS Temperature Anomaly Trends, 2002-2020
This movie of temperature observations from NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft depicts the first major North American weather event of 2014: cold air mo...
More
NASA's AIRS Sees Polar Vortex Behind U.S. Big Chill (narrated)
NASA's AIRS Sees Polar Vortex Behind U.S. Big Chill (narrated)
A series of fires across Greece in August of 2007 burned 469,000 acres and claimed the lives of 65 people. The fires, in which an estimated 4,000 people lost their homes, mostly occurred in the sou...
More
Carbon Monoxide from Fires in Greece, 2007
Carbon Monoxide from Fires in Greece, 2007
The continuing heat wave in the United States in July 2011 has broken temperature records in many locations, killed dozens and seen nearly half of all Americans under heat advisories at its peak.
More
U.S. 2011 Heat Wave: Surface Skin Temperature Anomaly, Night
U.S. 2011 Heat Wave: Surface Skin Temperature Anomaly, Night
In this animation, NASA instruments show the seasonal cycle of vegetation and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 
More
Watching Earth Breathe: The Seasonal Vegetation Cycle and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
Watching Earth Breathe: The Seasonal Vegetation Cycle and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
Global monthly mean temperatures for each month of the AIRS mission at 931 mb with anomaly in temperature in the Arctic region.
More
Global monthly mean temperatures for each month of the AIRS mission at 931 mb with anomaly in temperature in the Arctic region.
Shrinking Polar Circle - AIRS Temperature Anomaly Trends in the Arctic
Time series 2003-2019 shows a persistent source of CO in the Central African regions during late summer with reduced persistence in the South American regions in the later years. 
More
Globes shows time series of carbon monoxide transport.
Carbon monoxide time series mosaic animation, 2003-2019
This image shows average temperatures in April, 2003, observed by AIRS at an infrared wavelength that senses either the Earth's surface or any intervening cloud. 
More
Global Average Brightness Temperature for April 2003
Global Average Brightness Temperature for April 2003
Packing gusts of nearly 300 kilometers per hour (184 miles per hour) and sustained winds of 240 kilometers per hour (150 miles per hour), Super-Typhoon Pongsona struck the U.S. Island of Guam on De...
More
Super-Typhoon Pongsona, December 2002
Super-Typhoon Pongsona, December 2002
As the polar vortex rotates you see consistent patterns over the United States, where the tongue of cold air will dip repeatedly over and over bringing wave after wave of bad weather.
More
Globes showing polar vortex time series.
Polar Vortex mosaic animation, December 2002 to March 2020
An animated map and time series of mid-tropospheric carbon monoxide over 2002-2022 as observed by AIRS.
More
An animated map and time series of mid-tropospheric carbon monoxide over 2002-2022 as observed by AIRS.
AIRS Global Carbon Monoxide over 20 Years (2002-2022)
This visualization shows global carbon dioxide from July 2003 at 8 km. Low concentrations are shown in blue and high concentrations are shown in red.
More
Global Carbon Dioxide, July 2003
Global Carbon Dioxide, July 2003
Animation of the cumulative trend in AIRS monthly temperature anomaly on a global map, starting 2002 and going until April 2022. 
More
Animation of the cumulative trend in AIRS monthly temperature anomaly on a global map, starting 2002 and going until April 2022.
Global Animation of Cumulative Temperature Trend 2002-2022
Beginning August 26, 2009, and continuing into September 2009, a large wildfire in the Angeles National Forest north of Los Angeles known as the Station Fire burned more than 140,000 acres through ...
More
Pollution from California Wildfires Spreads Across the United States
Pollution from California Wildfires Spreads Across the United States
Progression of this slow-moving heat dome across the region from June 21-30, 2021.
More
Time series of heat wave evolution.
July 2021 Heat Wave Surface Temperature
AIRS scientist Ed Olsen was interviewed and filmed for Eco Company, a national TV show hosted by teens.
More
Water Vapor a Greenhouse Gas?
Water Vapor a Greenhouse Gas?
Although originally designed to measure atmospheric water vapor and temperature profiles for weather forecasting, data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecr...
More
Global Carbon Dioxide, July 2003
Global Carbon Dioxide, July 2003
Larrabee Strow of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has spent a career teasing out Earth's atmospheric molecules and studying how they react using a technique called high resolution spe...
More
How to build an indisputable climate record - An interview with Larrabee Strow
How to build an indisputable climate record - An interview with Larrabee Strow
Andrew Gettelman of the National Center of Atmospheric Research in Boulder Colorado knows our ability to effectively predict Earth's future climate depends on how accurate our climate models are to...
More
Recipe for a Better Climate Model - An interview with Andrew Gettelman
Recipe for a Better Climate Model - An interview with Andrew Gettelman
In this animation, NASA instruments show the seasonal cycle of vegetation and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
More
Watching Earth Breathe: The Seasonal Vegetation Cycle and Carbon Dioxide
Watching Earth Breathe: The Seasonal Vegetation Cycle and Carbon Dioxide
This movie was produced with data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft shows the spread of carbon monoxide pollution across North America from fires in ...
More
Animation: AIRS Instrument Sees Spread of Pollution from Western Wildfires, August 2013
Animation: AIRS Instrument Sees Spread of Pollution from Western Wildfires, August 2013

News & Features