When the Arctic sky splits apart

Get better at science with Brilliant: If you live in the northern hemisphere at the moment, you may be asking “why is it so cold?“, and you might have heard of something called the “stratospheric polar vortex“ splitting apart in something called a “sudden stratospheric warming“. Confused? In this video I explain what’s going on, using research from my PhD on the subject! There’s a lot of extra material that I had to cut from this video due to running time. If you have any extra questions, please feel free to ask in the comments - this subject has been my life for four years so I probably know the answer! Note: I am using the word ’storm’ in an unconventional (colloquial) way - no one would normally refer to the polar vortex as a storm, as that normally refers to extreme meteorology affecting the surface. However, I think you could argue that the word is actually appropriate here! For visualisations: (have a play!) REFERENCE PAPERS - Why SSWs happen: (1971)028;2 - Surface influence of SSWs: (2002)015;2 - Stratospheric influence on the jet stream: You can support the channel by donating at ---------- II ---------- Music by: ProleteR (Back Home) Filmed on my Canon 80D: Editing done in Premiere. Huge thanks to my supporters on Patreon: Dan Hanvey, David Efird, Michael Phillips, Neudys Almonte, Fraser Birks, Martin Hermes, Anh Duong Phan, Luca Schumann, Katy P, Rhys Rickard-Frost, Cameron Matchett, Lachlan Woods, Tim Boxall, Simon Vaes, Gabriele Mozzicato, Jawad Alalasi, Gaia Frazao Nery, Kodzo, Josh Ruby, Claire Anthony, Eve Dillon, Rowan Gow, Matthias Loos, James Bridges, James Craig, Angela, Sanaa Al Derei, Mark Anthony Magro, Liam, Theresa Wang, Kieran Kelly, Wendover Productions, Kendra Johnson, and Caitlin Louise. ---------- II ---------- Vlogs from Oxford students - My twitter - My facebook - My insta - My goodreads -