What is the hottest place on Earth? Until last year, the Valley of Death, in the Mojave desert, which in 1994 was declared a National Park, held that record with temperatures that on August 16 would reach 54.4 ºC, being a new mark since it was they have reliable records.
Thus, while the heat of the air in Death Valley can reach 56.7 ° C, surface temperatures are actually much higher in two other places: the Lut desert in Iran and the Sonoran desert. in North America.
Now, a team of researchers at the University of California, Irvine, has discovered, thanks to high-resolution satellite data from the United States Geological Survey from the past two decades, that surface temperatures in these two places can reach overwhelming heights. up to 80.8 ° C, although the Lut desert has a more constant heat.
The Lut Desert ranks first in terms of the highest land surface temperature in the world . Between 2002 and 2019, it regularly featured overwhelming extremes, probably because it is nestled between a range of mountains, trapping hot air over the dunes. In 2005, initial data found that the region reached 70.7 ° C, although the authors of this new paper say that this is probably an underestimate and that the actual temperature was much higher.
Since previous studies, NASA has updated its satellite software, allowing better detection of Earth’s surface temperatures. Using this new update, the researchers claim that temperatures in the Lut Desert are actually 10 degrees higher than previously believed.
The Sonoran Desert, which borders the United States and Mexico, can also reach extremely high temperatures, although this occurs less frequently than in the Lut Desert, probably due to its low elevation. It is mostly found in a rain shadow, and the low elevation of this desert means that the air has little chance of rising and cooling.
How much has climate change contributed to the rise in temperatures?
Scientists do not know it, but the hottest days recorded by satellites have occurred in more recent years, especially during the La Niña event, a climatic oscillation that can fluctuate with global warming.
“While the behavior of the atmosphere in response to more anthropogenic emissions is well studied, the response of the earth’s surface under different emission pathways is not well understood,” the authors comment in their study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological journal. Society. “It is hoped that future research in this direction can shed light not only on how extremes have changed in the past, but also on how they are likely to affect our planet in the future.”
Referencia: Global Patterns of Hottest, Coldest and Extreme Diurnal Variability on Earth Yunxia Zhao, Hamid Norouzi, Marzi Azarderakhsh, and Amir AghaKouchak Published-online: 10 May 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0325.1
