The North and South Poles are both chilly because they are at the top and bottom of the globe, respectively, and get no natural light from the sun. Even in the middle of their summers, the sun is constantly low on the horizon in both locales. The sun is so deep below the horizon during their winters that it does not rise for months at a time. Furthermore, the white surfaces of the ice and snow near the poles reflect a lot of light. This means that the majority of the energy from sunlight that reaches them is reflected back into space, keeping the air above them chilly.
According to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, despite the fact that these variables make both poles extremely frigid, the South Pole stays substantially colder than the North Pole. The North Pole's yearly average temperature is minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius) in the winter and 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) in the summer. The South Pole, on the other hand, has even colder temperatures, with an annual average temperature of minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius) in winter and minus 18 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 28.2 degrees Celsius) in summer.
The primary difference between the two poles is the main reason the South Pole is colder than the North Pole. According to Robin Bell, a polar scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York, "the North Pole is an ocean and the South Pole is a continent."
The Arctic Ocean is bordered on all sides by land. Antarctica is a landmass surrounded by water. Because water cools and heats more slowly than land, there are fewer temperature extremes. Even when the Arctic Ocean is frozen over, the comparatively mild temperature of its waters has a cooling influence on the climate, allowing the Arctic to remain warmer than the Antarctic. Furthermore, whereas the Arctic is at sea level, Antarctica is the world's highest continent, with an average elevation of about 7,500 feet (2,300 meters). The higher one goes, the colder it gets.
The ice cover at both the North and South Poles changes throughout the year, rising during the long, dark winters and melting during the sunny, increasingly hot summers. Sea ice that floats, develops, and melts over the ocean accounts for the majority of the fluctuation in ice cover at both the North and South Poles. The sea ice that forms in the Arctic is not as mobile as the sea ice that occurs in the Antarctic since the Arctic is nearly totally surrounded by land.
As a result, Arctic sea ice floes are more likely to converge, resulting in thicker Arctic sea ice (approximately 6 to 9 feet (2 to 3 meters) than Antarctic sea ice (about 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters), according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
According to the NSIDC, Arctic sea ice has a minimum extent of 2.5 million square miles (6.5 million square kilometers) and a maximum extent of 6 million square miles (15.6 million square kilometers) on average. Antarctic sea ice has a lesser minimum extent of 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million square kilometers) and a bigger maximum extent of 7.2 million square miles on average (18.8 million square km).
You must be logged in to post a comment.