NASA PREFIRE Mission Releases Animations of Two Years of Polar Seasonal Temperature Swings

NASA’s Earth Observatory has published new animations derived from two years of observations by the agency’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission, depicting seasonal surface temperature swings at Earth’s poles (NASA Earth Observatory).

The visualizations, released as the Image of the Day for August 7, 2026, show surface temperatures across the Arctic and Antarctic pulsing between cold (dark blue) and milder to warmer conditions (lighter blue to red). Data come from the mission’s twin CubeSats, which began collecting science data in July 2024 and have now recorded two complete seasonal cycles at each pole (NASA Earth Observatory).

Because the poles lie in opposite hemispheres, their seasons occur at opposite times of year, and the amplitude of temperature change differs. In the Arctic, cold dark winters transition to summers warm enough to thaw extensive areas of tundra and sea ice. In Antarctica, the coldest continent, summer temperatures rarely rise above freezing before winter cold returns (NASA Earth Observatory).

Surface temperatures and their fluctuations provide insight into Earth’s energy budget—the balance of energy entering and leaving the planet. Sunlight absorbed at the surface is re-radiated as infrared heat. Atmospheric and ocean circulation transport excess heat from the tropics toward the poles, where much of it radiates to space, helping regulate global temperatures. The poles play a key role in this process (NASA Earth Observatory).

PREFIRE measures far-infrared radiation, a portion of the spectrum that accounts for nearly 60 percent of the energy Earth loses to space but that had not previously been comprehensively observed on a global scale from orbit. The mission’s thermal infrared spectrometers on the shoebox-sized CubeSats track this radiation in near-real time (NASA Earth Observatory; JPL PREFIRE mission page).

“By measuring invisible heat radiating from Earth's coldest places, PREFIRE is helping scientists understand why the poles are changing so rapidly, and what those changes might mean for the rest of the planet,” said Chad Greene, a glaciologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA Earth Observatory).

Tristan L’Ecuyer, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and PREFIRE principal investigator, noted that weather systems, river flows, shipping routes, and ice sheet stability are influenced by energy movement in the spectral range only PREFIRE observes. “Now that the invisible has been made visible, we can begin to improve weather and climate predictions that industries, our national defense, and Arctic communities rely on,” he said (NASA Earth Observatory).

The two CubeSats launched in May and June 2024 aboard Rocket Lab Electron rockets into asynchronous near-polar orbits. Each carries a thermal infrared spectrometer designed to measure far-infrared emissions. NASA extended the mission through at least September 2026 and broadened its scientific focus from primarily polar regions to global coverage to support improved modeling of weather and climate processes, including the effects of clouds and water vapor (JPL; JPL PREFIRE mission page).

Mission objectives include quantifying how much heat snow and ice surfaces emit into space and how that varies seasonally, measuring far-infrared radiation trapped by atmospheric water vapor and clouds, and using the data to refine climate model estimates of far-infrared emissions for better projections of Arctic warming, sea ice loss, and ice sheet processes (JPL PREFIRE mission page).

Maps and animations were produced by Chad Greene of NASA/JPL using PREFIRE data, with the Earth Observatory story written by Kathryn Hansen (NASA Earth Observatory). Public PREFIRE data products are available through NASA’s Earthdata systems.