The weather could be taking a turn for the better in Neptune’s southern hemisphere, after a long-term monitoring project has measured a recent jump in temperature at the pole.
Ground-based telescopes have been monitoring the atmospheric temperature on Neptune since 2003. The planet’s southern hemisphere began its summer in 2005, but change has been slow as each season lasts around 40 years. Between 2003 and 2018, the team noticed a steady drop in global temperature of around 8˚C. However, this jumped abruptly when the south pole’s temperature rose by 11˚C in just two years, between 2018 and 2020.
“Temperature variations may be related to seasonal changes in Neptune’s atmospheric chemistry, which can alter how effectively the atmosphere cools,” says Michael Roman from the University of Leicester, who led the study. “But random variability in weather patterns or even a response to the 11–year solar activity cycle may also have an effect. This all points towards a more complicated picture of Neptune’s atmosphere and how it changes with time.”