We often think that Arctic and Antarctic are the same because they are cold, dark and remote but, they are completely different. The most notable difference is that one is in the North and the other in the South. Also, polar bears live only in the Arctic and penguins live only in the Antarctic.
The Arctic.
The Arctic is a polar region located at the northernmost part of the Earth. It consists of a vast ocean with a seasonally varying ice cover and completely surrounded by land.
The Arctic is especially vulnerable to the effects of any climate change. This is because ice and snow reflect a high proportion of the sun's energy into space (albedo effect). As snow and ice melt, the ability of the Arctic to reflect heat back to space is reduced, open water are exposed which can absorb more heat from the sun. That extra heat then helps melt even more ice. So, the ice in the Artic has suffered a great reduction in recent years. Positive feedbacks are occurring in the Arctic.
Source: https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/arctic-meteorology/climate_change.html
Changes in the Arctic climate are important because the Arctic acts as a refrigerator for the rest of the world and also the melting glaciers could contribute to rise the sea level.
Changes in the Arctic climate are important because the Arctic acts as a refrigerator for the rest of the world and also the melting glaciers could contribute to rise the sea level.
The Antarctic.
The Antarcticis a polar region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region. It is almost a geographic opposite of the Arctic, because Antarctica is a land mass surrounded by an ocean.
Antarctic sea ice forms ridges much less often than sea ice in the Arctic. Also, because there is no land boundary to the north, the sea ice is free to float northward into warmer waters where it eventually melts. As a result, almost all of the sea ice that forms during the Antarctic winter melts during the summer.
Antarctica comprises two geologically distinct regions, East Antarctica and West Antarctica, separated by the great Trans-Antarctic Mountains but joined together by an ice sheet. The annual sea ice cover around the continent, which seasonally reaches an area greater than that of the continent itself, modulates exchanges of heat, moisture, and gases between the atmosphere and ocean and, through salt rejection when it freezes, forces the formation of cold oceanic bottom waters that spread out under the world’s oceans. Alterations to this system will affect climate all over the planet.
The Antarctic Peninsula is particularly sensitive to small rises in the annual average temperature, this has increased by nearly 3°C in the region in the last 50 years, this is about 10 times faster than the average in the rest of the world.
The Antarctic Peninsula is particularly sensitive to small rises in the annual average temperature, this has increased by nearly 3°C in the region in the last 50 years, this is about 10 times faster than the average in the rest of the world.
Despite warmer sea-surface and air temperatures over the Southern Ocean, there has been a slight increase in Antarctic sea-ice extent which is believed to be linked to changes in atmospheric weather patterns. The collapse of ice shelves and land-ice reduction near coastal West Antarctica has been driven by warm ocean currents under the ice shelves.
The eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula is very sensitive to climate change. Stronger westerly winds in the northern Antarctic Peninsula, driven principally by human-induced climate change, were responsible for the marked regional summer warming that led to the well-publicised retreat and collapse of the northern Larsen Ice Shelf.
The reasons for these changes is complex,
different areas react in different ways to changing climate but obviously the human activity has contibuted to the global warming. It may seem intuitive that warmer temperatures mean less
ice in Antarctica and not more, it is explicable, in part by
the effect of the ozone hole that forms annually over Antarctica.The Ozone Hole and global warming have changed Antarctic weather
patterns.
Sources:
Antarctica
comprises two geologically distinct regions, East Antarctica and West
Antarctica, separated by the great Trans-Antarctic Mountains but joined
together by the all-encompassing ice sheet. - See more at:
http://www.asoc.org/advocacy/climate-change-and-the-antarctic#sthash.tsKoDm0O.dpuf
e
problem. Antarctica comprises two geologically distinct regions, East
Antarctica and West Antarctica, separated by the great Trans-Antarctic
Mountains but joined together by the all-encompassing ice sheet. The
presence of the high ice sheet and the polar location make Antarctica a
powerful heat sink that strongly affects the climate of the whole Earth.
- See more at:
http://www.asoc.org/advocacy/climate-change-and-the-antarctic#sthash.tsKoDm0O.dpuf
e
problem. Antarctica comprises two geologically distinct regions, East
Antarctica and West Antarctica, separated by the great Trans-Antarctic
Mountains but joined together by the all-encompassing ice sheet. The
presence of the high ice sheet and the polar location make Antarctica a
powerful heat sink that strongly affects the climate of the whole Earth.
- See more at:
http://www.asoc.org/advocacy/climate-change-and-the-antarctic#sthash.tsKoDm0O.dpuf
Antarctica
comprises two geologically distinct regions, East Antarctica and West
Antarctica, separated by the great Trans-Antarctic Mountains but joined
together by the all-encompassing ice sheet. - See more at:
http://www.asoc.org/advocacy/climate-change-and-the-antarctic#sthash.tsKoDm0O.dpuf
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