Temperature spikes above Antarctica in July represent the earliest warming of the stratosphere ever recorded, NASA observations show.
Atmospheric scientists have been closely monitoring this region of Earth's atmosphere, which extends from about 4 to 31 miles (6 to 50 kilometers) above Earth's surface, during the Southern Hemisphere's winter. Lawrence Coy and Paul Newman, both atmospheric scientists at NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO), create elaborate data assimilation and reanalysis models of the global atmosphere and have paid close attention to unusual and "surprising" warming events.
