University of Wisconsin–Madison

Sensing the Poles’ Hidden Heat (NASA Image of the Day)

NASA has recently highlighted the project with an Image of the Day article that includes a new animation of two years of seasonal temperature swings in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, as seen by the twin PREFIRE CubeSats!

Arctic and Antarctic surface temperature maps
Arctic and Antarctic surface temperature maps for the month of February, compiled from two years of PREFIRE orbital measurements. This is a frame from a more extensive animation.

Surface temperature during clear-sky conditions is only one of many measurements that can be derived from PREFIRE’s spectral measurements of the mid- and far-infrared wavelength range. The team is hard at work teasing out details of clouds, water vapor, ice/snow, energy fluxes, and other things from this unique dataset.