Stratospheric warming observed by nimbus 4

AN important feature of the winter stratosphere near the poles is the occurrence of "sudden warmings" where the temperature over a small area may rise by as much as 50 K in a few days, accompanied by a major change in circulation. Observation of these events, dependent on meteorological rocket and radiosonde ascents, has been hampered by the sparsity of data. Here we present data for a stratospheric warming obtained by the selective chopper radiometer on the Nimbus 4 satellite, which gives global coverage to considerably greater heights than has hitherto been possible. © 1971 Nature Publishing Group.