Antarctica Q: When satellite shows a big yellow area in the clouds, is that a blizzard?

Question

http://www.weather.com/maps/geography/polar/southpolesatellite_large.html?clip=undefined&region=undefined&collection=localwxforecast&presname=undefined

The map at 2:20 eastern shows a large yellow mass over Antarctica that reminds me of what indicates storms on our US weather maps but it's so big. Looked online about blizzards and stuff but couldn't find an explanation of the map.

Answer 1

The image is likely an infrared image, which depicts temperature.  It could be that there are few clouds, but since Antarctica is in it's winter, surface temperatures are very cold, and that may be why it is showing such a large area of cold indications.  I see the same effect over northern Canada on occasion during the northern hemisphere winters.

Answer 2

Not necessarily.  That is an Infrared satellite, which measures the cloud top temperatures.  The oranges and reds are indicative of colder, and typically higher, cloud tops, while the purples and whites are warmer, usually lower cloud tops.  And higher cloud tops are indicative of more active weather and usually heavier precipitation.  

Now I'm not terribly familiar with the Antarctica climate, but with it being so cold (especially now in the middle of winter), the cloud tops may artifically appear higher than they really are.  There is likely some unsettled weather beneath the clouds, but not necessarily a blizzard.