The North Pole Disappears

As the Sun sets over the pole for the winter, satellites can no longer photograph it with visible light. Note the circular hole in the center of  today’s image.

The hole will spread quickly to lower latitudes over the next few weeks, while the sun begins to rise at the South Pole. The chart below shows solar energy received by date and latitude.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/EnergyBalance/page3.php

Note that the South Pole receives more solar energy during the year than the North Pole, because the earth is closest to the Sun during the Southern Hemisphere summer.

About Tony Heller

Just having fun
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5 Responses to The North Pole Disappears

  1. AndyW says:

    Isn’t that circle due to something else though? There’s one on this as well

    http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/NEWIMAGES/arctic.seaice.color.000.png

    which doesn’t use visible light.

    Andy

  2. Here is the same visible image from a week ago. No hole

    http://exploreourpla.net/explorer/?map=Arc&sat=ter&lvl=4&lat=89.000000&lon=0.000000&yir=2010&dag=253

    The microwave satellites have other limitations at high latitudes.

  3. AndyW says:

    But doesn’t the sun sink below the horizon at the equinox which is not quite yet?

    There seems to be no lessening of brightness towards the poles when that image was taken, also the perfect circle seems to indicate something else than approaching darkness.

    Andy

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