“You won’t find anyone there but it’s the coldest place we’ve ever found” commented the POT on one of their official Facebook accounts. It is a high ridge on the east antarctic plateau that reaches temperatures below -90°C and makes human life there almost impossible.
According to the US aerospace agency, the measurements carried out by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) based on satellite data, detected that in the eastern part of the Antarctica temperatures drop to record levels.
The scientists made the discovery by analyzing temperature maps of the planet’s surface, made with information from remote-sensing satellites such as the MODIS sensor on the planet. Aqua satellite from NASA and the TIRS sensor from Landsat 8a joint NASA project with the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
On his Facebook account, the Goddard Space Flight Center from NASA, made a post where he echoed the coldest area on the planet. “Looking for the coldest place to spend the holidays?” he began, she jokingly, “it’s a high ridge on the East Antarctic Plateau. On a clear winter night temperatures can drop to 92°C below zero!” he finished the post.
Despite the joke, this place is inhabited and its extreme temperatures make living there an almost impossible mission. That is why scientists do not carry out terrestrial measurements on the place but use those provided by satellites.
According to the relevant information, the Antarctic High Ridge runs from the argus dome until the fuji dome and has an area similar to the size of Australia. There the scientists found clusters of pockets that have plunged to record low temperatures dozens of times.
The lowest temperature detected was -93.2°C (-136°F)although the researchers believe that the night and dry air around the area could cause temperatures to drop further.
Scientists analyzed 32 years of data from satellite instruments that mapped the surface temperature of Antarctica. Thanks to this, in 2013, NASA first reported the discovery of the plateau as the coldest point on the planet.
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The coldest place in the world
The old record was -89.2°Crecorded directly at ground level in 1983. This temperature occurred at the then Soviet station of Vostokalso located in the eastern area of the Antarctic continent.
Although the high ridge on the East Antarctic Plateau had a lower temperature, many scientists did not consider it the lowest measurement on record, since it was made by remote sensing from a satellite and not by ground-based thermometers, unlike the record from 1983.
The temperature measured through satellite data reflects that of the ice surface, whereas Vostok’s readings measured the air above the ice, so the two are not directly comparable according to the researchers.
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The temperatures recorded in the Antarctica make it difficult for there to be a permanent population. Although there have been the highest cold episodes there, there is a region that holds the record for being the place with the lowest temperatures in the world.
Is about Oymyakon, located in Russia, east of eastern Siberia. A mining town where less than a thousand people live and temperatures below 50 degrees Celsius can be found, and it has even reached the record of 71.2 degrees below zero in 1924.
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“The normal thing is that in winter it is -50 ºC. Between -58º and -64º there are extreme frosts. When it’s too cold, you can’t play sports in the street, but if you’re warm, you can be outside and spend time in the forest, where they usually go hunting or cutting firewood,” explained Max, from the Oymyakon tourist office. to the portal ‘Verne’.
over there, everything freezes and people should always stay covered and keep their homes well heated. When the temperatures are very low, children can only go outside for 20 minutes, but if the temperature drops below 68 degrees Celsius they are prohibited from going out.
RV / PCM
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