Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here we all know the type.
Speaker 1: Certain people treat every conversation about weather like it's some
Speaker 1: kind of contest. Maybe their hometown is rainier than yours,
Speaker 1: maybe they've lived through more blizzards. In any case, these
Speaker 1: folks can't resist a little meteorological one upmanship. This got
Speaker 1: the team at how Stuff Works thinking about superlatives. How
Speaker 1: cold can surface of our planet physically get? And what
Speaker 1: is the coldest place on Earth? In July one was
Speaker 1: a day for the record books. One of the most
Speaker 1: remote facilities in all of ant Arctica is a place
Speaker 1: called Vostik Station, run by the Russian government and previously
Speaker 1: the U. S SR. It's located on the East Antarctic
Speaker 1: ice Sheet, just eight hundred miles or about kilometers away
Speaker 1: from the geographic South Pole. On that historic date, the
Speaker 1: researchers working at the station measured the lowest near surface
Speaker 1: air temperature that's ever been recorded, negative a hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty eight point five six degrees fahrenheit or negative eighty
Speaker 1: nine point two degrees celsius. But note that qualifier. We
Speaker 1: specifically said near surface air temperature. That term is about
Speaker 1: to become very important to our discussion for the article.
Speaker 1: This episode is based on how Stuff Works. Spoke by
Speaker 1: email with Ted Scambos, a polar geophysicist based at the
Speaker 1: University of Colorado, Boulder. He explained that near surface air
Speaker 1: temperature is the temperature that the thermometer reads at one
Speaker 1: point five to three meters or about five to ten
Speaker 1: feet above the surface of the Earth. But quote the
Speaker 1: reference height for formal measurements is six ft six inches
Speaker 1: or so, that's two meters above the surface. When you
Speaker 1: go higher or lower the measured temperature, your location may change,
Speaker 1: and surface temperatures are a different beast Altogether, that's the
Speaker 1: actual temperature of the physical surface of the planet, whether
Speaker 1: that's soil, rock, water, or ice. With that in mind,
Speaker 1: let's return to Antarctica. Scambos was the lead author of
Speaker 1: a teen study that reported on ultra low surface temperatures
Speaker 1: in East Antarctica. One of its co authors was one
Speaker 1: Atsuhiro Muto, a geophysicist and polar scientist at Temple University
Speaker 1: who house to Works also spoke with via email. This study,
Speaker 1: which was published as a letter in the journal Geophysical
Speaker 1: Research Letters, describes how Scambos, Mutho and their colleagues used
Speaker 1: satellite sensors to investigate weather patterns on the East Antarctic Plateau.
Speaker 1: The plateau is at the center of the continent and
Speaker 1: is where the geographic south Pole is located, but that's
Speaker 1: not its only attraction. Dome Argus, the highest point of
Speaker 1: elevation in Eastern Antarctica, is also situated on the plateau.
Speaker 1: This icy spot looms over thirteen thousand, four hundred feet
Speaker 1: or four thousand meters above sea level. Four decades artificial satellites,
Speaker 1: including some built and maintained by NASA, have overseen the
Speaker 1: conditions on the East Antarctic Plateau. Scambos, Muto and their
Speaker 1: colleagues went back and reviewed the relevant data gathered by
Speaker 1: these devices during the winters of two thousand four through
Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen. In that time, the satellites observed surface
Speaker 1: temperatures of around negative hundred and thirty eight degrees fahrenheit
Speaker 1: that's negative ninety eight degrees celsius at roughly one hundred
Speaker 1: Shallow depressions on the plateau, all scattered across a broad
Speaker 1: region that includes dome Argus but sits at a higher
Speaker 1: elevation than of Vostok Station. These are the lowest surface
Speaker 1: temperatures ever recorded anywhere on Earth. Muto stresses that because
Speaker 1: the data was collected by Earth observing satellites quote, no
Speaker 1: human being experienced these low temperatures. To my knowledge, the
Speaker 1: lowest temperature recorded by a physical thermometer and experienced by
Speaker 1: humans is still negative eighty nine point two degrees celsius
Speaker 1: at Vostok Station. Every year, the geographic South Pole and
Speaker 1: nearby areas undergo a polar night. That's an extended period
Speaker 1: in which the sun never climbs above the horizon, usually
Speaker 1: in the months of July and August. Those records setting
Speaker 1: plateau temperatures were observed during this dark stretch of the calendar.
Speaker 1: Muto explained the East Antarctic Plateau is so cold because
Speaker 1: of high altitude, and the snow on the surface reflects
Speaker 1: most of the solar energy back about or more to
Speaker 1: the atmosphere. Plus, you have the polar nights during the
Speaker 1: winter when there's no solar energy at all. Also, because
Speaker 1: of the great distance from the coast, you rarely get
Speaker 1: warmer coastal air masses penetrating inland to bring the heat. Obviously,
Speaker 1: This is not an environment for the faint hearted, Scambo said.
Speaker 1: It is a gigantic, white, flat expanse of bitter cold snow.
Speaker 1: The wind is ceaseless, the sky is a deeper blue
Speaker 1: than any place you've seen before. It is an isolated,
Speaker 1: eternal landscape. Yet even there, those record setting surface temperatures
Speaker 1: will only occur under just the right circumstances. Prolonged darkness
Speaker 1: Loan isn't enough to bring the metaphorical thermostat all the
Speaker 1: way down to that low low point. The Scambo says
Speaker 1: that there must also be quote still air, zero clouds,
Speaker 1: incredibly dry atmosphere, and you need to be sitting in
Speaker 1: a swale in the ice surface. A swill is a
Speaker 1: sort of subtle depression in the ice that might be
Speaker 1: a couple of miles across, maybe three kilometers or so,
Speaker 1: but will just be six and a half to ten
Speaker 1: feet deep around two to three meters. Dips and valleys
Speaker 1: in the Antarctic ice sheet trap air that's dense, dry
Speaker 1: and cold, and by South Pole standards, given enough time,
Speaker 1: the trapped air cools down surface level snow along with
Speaker 1: some of the warmer air above it. So there you
Speaker 1: have it. A shallow depressions in a high elevation part
Speaker 1: of the East Antarctic Plateau have the capacity to become
Speaker 1: the coldest places on the face of the Earth during
Speaker 1: their polar winter. The bragging rights have been claimed inform
Speaker 1: your Midwestern relatives. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: What's the coldest place on Earth? On how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com written by Mark Mancini. Brain Stuff is production
Speaker 1: of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Clang. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.