South Pole colder than the north pole. why ??????

D H

Most importantly, the longest night (astronomical darkness) at Mt. Everest is a bit shy of eleven hours long while at the south pole astronomical darkness lasts about four months.

klimatos

Climatic temperatures are generally considered to be factors of three major controls: latitude, altitude, and continental position.

The higher the latitude the lower the annual temperature.
The higher the altitude the lower the annual temperature.
The closer to the center of the land mass the more extreme are the temperatures. That is, the highs will be higher and the lows will be lower.

klimatos

During aphelion (the first week in July), the Earth's orbit is at its farthest from the Sun; and solar radiation at the outside of the Earth's atmosphere has a value of some 1322 watts per square meter.

During perihelion (the first week in January), the Earth's orbit is at its closest to the Sun; and solar radiation at the outside of the Earth's atmosphere has a value of some 1413 watts per square meter.

The Solar Constant (mean value over two sunspot cycles) is now 1366.1 watts per square meter.

D H

Another factor, one not yet mentioned, is the polar high. The Antarctic high tends to be significantly stronger than is the Arctic high. One reason is that Antarctica is a continent surrounded by ocean while the Arctic is an ocean nearly completely surrounded by land. In the Antarctic the natural tendency to have a polar high build during winter is augmented by the natural tendency for high pressure cells to build over continental land masses. The configuration in the Arctic to some extent militates against the development of the extended polar high that builds over the Antarctic.

rcgldr

Wiki article also mentions reflective white snow as another factor in addition to altitude for the extreme cold there:

Much of the sunlight that does reach the surface is reflected by the white snow. This lack of warmth from the sun, combined with the high altitude (about 2,800 metres (9,186 ft)), means that the South Pole has one of the coldest climates on Earth (though it is not quite the coldest; that record goes to the region in the vicinity of the Vostok Station, also in Antarctica, which lies at a higher elevation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pole

DrClapeyron

Two biggest reasons:

1. Heigher altitude
2. Land mass with no vast underground water circulation system

A similar question to ask would be why the South Pole is colder than Greenland. In this case latitude and relative size would be factors.

Q: Does the comparitive smaller amount of land in the southern hemisphere play a part in the temperature difference?

klimatos

As a professional climatologist, I can say that the consensus of informed opinion in the field is that it does, and that the effect is significant. Being both human beings and scholars, of course, we disagree on exactly how much the effect is and the exact nature of the significance.

SW VandeCarr

The coldest temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) do not occur over the Arctic Ocean but in continental areas at much lower latitudes. The most extreme winter temperatures in the NH occur in northeastern Siberia where temperatures of -68 C (-90 F) have been recorded. Over the shifting Arctic Ocean winter ice pack, temperatures rarely drop below -45 C (-50 F). However, the Russian Vostok Antarctic Base, located at Antarctica's most interior point (pole of inaccessibility), consistently records midwinter temperatures of around -88 C (-124 F). The extensive Antarctic winter ice pack vastly increases the continental effects around the land mass. The effect of open deep water in moderating winter temperatures is substantial.

davenn

Antarctica holds some other pretty amazing facts/ records.
It holds the record for the driest place on earth. Sound strange for a place covered in ice and snow but...
The cold and dry conditions in the "Dry Valleys" region of Antarctica are so close to those on Mars that NASA did testing there for the Viking mission. It has not rained in the dry valleys for at least 2 million years.

a bunch more interesing facts have a look here....
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarc...bout_antar.htm

cheers
Dave N

leemadison11

If you look at the earth from a distance, it is a bit tilted towards the right side, thus the Arctic region is more bent ahead while Antarctic region is a bit backward. When the sun rays strike the earth regions, it doesn't fall uniformly everywhere. That's why the equator is hotter than north and south pole. Since the sun rays fall more on the Northern region than the Southern region, that's why Antarctica is colder than Arctic. Its the same reason why its summers in Australia during Christmas while its cold in the Northern region.

D H

That's nonsense.

The first day of winter in the Northern hemisphere is just about a month away. Your picture will be exactly backwards a month from now.