Climatologists are also busy during this time of year tracking and comparing the temperatures on and below the continent's surface. If you choose to go on an Antarctica cruise in February or March , you will be seeing the continent during its late summer period.
This provides a variety of benefits, including the ability to explore more thoroughly as the ice melts and breaks apart, allowing for a high chance of seeing whales on the Peninsula.
Late summer is the best time to see whales in Antarctica. It is most common to see humpback whales, minke whales and killer whales, though it's possible to see many other species as well. These can include blue whales, fin whales, sei whales, southern right whales and sperm whales. By March, those adorable penguin chicks are growing up. They begin to fledge and grow into their adult feathers, while their parents may already have gone out to sea to begin to prepare for their own molting season.
If you're an explorer who wants to see as much of Antarctica as possible, choose a late-summer cruise. As the polar ice melts, you'll have access to points much farther south than you would during other travel seasons. You will certainly see some wildlife, as well, and will get to know the untouched majesty of Antarctica in this particular form.
If you think of the Antarctic continent as a constant mass of furious snow storms, think again. While blizzards do happen in the south pole, they're few and far between, and they're typically due to winds blowing lose snow rather than new snow falling. Snow doesn't fall fresh very often - the continent only gets an average of 2 inches of precipitation each year. Antarctica is technically a desert, and a particularly dry one at that. This is because the cold air simply can't hold much water.
There's no precipitation without humidity, and there's no humidity without heat. You might be wondering why the continent is covered in snow if it rarely falls. Along with the warmer Arctic in general, that mechanism boosted the heat and humidity of the air in the region. In the past such a plume of warm, moist air migrating north from Siberia would have encountered ice, quickly cooled down and perhaps petered out. At the same time, the intense wildfires raging throughout Siberia may have given the warm air mass an injection of smoke.
In addition, a warming polar environment will expand the weather-containing troposphere, Thoman said. That may allow more room for those towering, ice and water droplet-containing, lightning-capable clouds to develop. Although it will still remain relatively rare, near-polar lightning should become more common as the world continues to cook. At the same time, our remote sensing and lightning detecting capabilities are improving.
All rights reserved. Bolts from the blue. Share Tweet Email. Read This Next Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London Love them or hate them, there's no denying their growing numbers have added an explosion of color to the city's streets.
India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big. Environment Planet Possible India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big Grassroots efforts are bringing solar panels to rural villages without electricity, while massive solar arrays are being built across the country. Epic floods leave South Sudanese to face disease and starvation. Travel 5 pandemic tech innovations that will change travel forever These digital innovations will make your next trip safer and more efficient.
But will they invade your privacy? Go Further. Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals This frog mysteriously re-evolved a full set of teeth. Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. Winds and gravity separate the charged hydrometeors and produce an enormous electrical potential within the storm. Right: Lightning is a sudden discharge of electricity between charged regions of thunderclouds and the ground.
Only about 25 percent of lightning strikes are cloud-to-ground. The rest are either cloud-to-cloud or intracloud. Another lightning hot spot is in the Himalayas where the extreme local topography forces the convergence of air masses from the Indian Ocean.
And where does lightning strike most frequently? Central Africa. The satellite data also track patterns of lightning intensity over time. In the northern hemisphere, for example, most lightning happens during the summer months. But in equatorial regions, lightning appears more often during the fall and spring.
This seasonal variation contributes to a curious north-south asymmetry: Lightning ignites many of North America's late-summer wildfires, while some studies find that wildfires in South America are sparked more often by humans. Why the difference? It's simply because lightning in South America happens during a season when the ground is damp. Summertime lightning bolts in North America strike when the ground is dry and littered with fuel for fires.
Heating of low-lying air is crucial for storm formation, so the oceans don't experience as many thunderstorms. According to Boccippio these global patterns probably aren't much influenced by human activity.
0コメント