Climate

Antarctica has an extremely cold, dry climate. Winter temperatures along Antarctica’s coast generally range from -10° to -30°C. During the summer, coastal areas hover around 0°C but can reach temperatures as high as 9°C.

In the mountainous, interior regions, temperatures are much colder, dropping below -60°C in winter and -20°C in summer. I

Precipitation in the Antarctic is hard to measure. It always falls as snow. Antarctica’s interior is believed to receive only 50 to 100 millimeters of water (in the form of snow) every year. The Antarctic desert is one of the driest deserts in the world.

The Antarctic region has an important role in global climate processes. It is an integral part of Earth’s heat balance. The heat balance, also called the energy balance, is the relationship between the amount of solar heat absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere and the amount of heat reflected back into space.

Antarctica has a larger role than most continents in maintaining Earth’s heat balance. Ice is more reflective than land or water surfaces. The massive Antarctic Ice Sheet reflects a large amount of solar radiation away from Earth’s surface. As global ice cover (ice sheets and glaciers) decreases, the reflectivity of Earth’s surface also decreases. This allows more incoming solar radiation to be absorbed by Earth’s surface, causing an unequal heat balance linked to global warming, the current period of climate change.

The waters surrounding Antarctica are a key part of the “ocean conveyor belt,” a global system in which water circulates around the globe based on density and on currents. The cold waters surrounding Antarctica, known as the Antarctic Bottom Water, are so dense that they push against the ocean floor. The Antarctic Bottom Water causes warmer waters to rise, or upwell.

Antarctic upwelling is so strong that it helps move water around the entire planet. This movement is aided by strong winds that circumnavigate Antarctica. Without the aid of the oceans around Antarctica, Earth’s waters would not circulate in a balanced and efficient manner.Read more