The coldest place on Earth is even colder than suspected

The new satellite-assisted search found a new low-temperature record for anywhere on Earth: a super-cold -144 ° F (-98 ° C), easily beating all previous measurements.

The lowest record, measured on the East Antarctic Plateau, including the South Pole, has not identified a particular date, but is based on the analysis of the data captured by satellites between 2004 and 2016 to show that this low temperature was occurring.

He beat the previous lowest ground temperature measured by a ground station on July 23, 1983, at the Vostok station in Antarctica. It also surpassed the previous satellite estimate of -135 ° F using a similar approach in 2013.

The researchers think that a lower temperature on our planet is unlikely – perhaps a smidge lower with unusual conditions.

In an article of Letters of geophysical research, researchers from several institutions led by Ted Scambos, principal investigator at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado-Boulder, have discovered that with the right conditions, temperatures plunge well below expectations. the wind and the air very dry.

At two miles above sea level (approximately 3,500 m), above the ice cap covering the eastern Antarctic Plateau, near the Vostok station, the temperature is consistently below – 190 ° F (-90 ° C). However, super-dense and super-cold air pockets descend and become trapped in tiny depressions, only 6 to 9 feet deep. This air at very low temperatures allows the snow of these hollows to radiate even more heat, allowing an extraordinarily low temperature on the ground.

This new research combined data from several NASA satellites, including one that had been recalibrated in 2016 with new information from ground stations.

The researchers believe that it would take weeks, rather than days, of clear skies to provide an additional reduction in air temperature that would allow the snow to cool even further in these lows.

However, they have designed new ground-based measurement equipment capable of coping with extreme cold, which they plan to deploy over the next two years.