Polar Stratospheric Clouds

  • Credit

    NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Polar Stratospheric Clouds from SOLVE

Polar stratospheric clouds form at extremely low temperatures in the upper atmosphere. Should the temperature rise, clouds won't form. In this visualization, sequential temperature readings taken in the research area for SOLVE (Stratospheric Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment) are plotted against a threshold temperature for PSC formation. These are clouds essentially made of nitric acid. Note how the area covered by the clouds increases as winter progresses. The red point on the map indicates the location of Kiruna, Sweden, the SOLVE staging area.

Polar stratospheric cloud regions for the period November 1, 1999 through March 15, 2000

Metadata

  • Sensor

    TOMS/TOMS

  • Animation ID

    1166

  • Video ID

    SVS2000-0006

  • Start Timecode

    1:01:31:00

  • End Timecode

    1:00:00:00

  • Animator

    George Fekete

  • Studio

    SVS

  • Visualization Date

    2000/05/30

  • Scientist

    Paul Newman (NASA/GSFC)

  • Keywords

    Aerosols

  • DLESE Subject

    Atmospheric science

  • Data Date

    1999/11/01-2000/03/15

  • Pao ID

    g00-035_earth

  • Story URL

    stories/solve/index.html

  • Animation Type

    Regular