Polar Climates

• Main Author: Barry, Roger G.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2017
• Subjects: Arctic; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Antarc*; Antarctica; polar desert; Sea ice; Tundra
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0358; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2F9781118786352.wbieg0358; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0358

The Arctic is a sea ice‐covered ocean largely surrounded by the northern continents, that are snow‐free in summer. Antarctica is a high ice plateau surrounded by seasonally ice‐covered ocean. Both regions experience winter night and summer day, but temperatures in Antarctica are generally well below freezing year‐round, while in the Arctic in summer they are close to zero over the ocean and around 5–10°C inland. Both regions are dominated by a polar vortex in the troposphere around which the global westerly winds blow and extratropical cyclones and mesocyclones (polar lows) circle. There are three climatic regions on land: tundra, polar desert, and ice plateau. Over the open oceans there is a polar maritime climate, except in the presence of sea ice. Arctic temperatures have risen much faster than the global average over the past two decades (polar amplification) and the extent of arctic sea ice has rapidly diminished, especially in late summer. Similar changes are affecting the Antarctic Peninsula and seas to the west of it.