The North Pole and South Pole are the coldest places on earth. However, although these areas may look similar, one is much colder than the other.
Both the North Pole and South Pole are cold because they cannot receive direct light from the Sun due to their position above and below the planet. In both, the Sun always stays low on the horizon, even in the middle of summer. During winters, however, the Sun stays well below the horizon and does not appear for months.
Additionally, the white surfaces of polar ice and snow are highly reflective. That is, most of the energy from sunlight reaching them returns to space, causing the air above these surfaces to remain relatively cool.
Although these causes both poles to be extremely cold, the South Pole remains significantly colder than the North Pole, according to the Woods Hole Institute for Marine Science. The average annual temperature in the Arctic is minus 40 degrees Celsius in winter and 0 degrees Celsius in summer. But the South Pole is much colder, with an annual average of minus 60°C and minus minus 28.2°C in summer.
The main reason why the South pole is colder than the North pole, it also shows the fundamental difference between them. “The North Pole is an ocean and the South Pole is a continent,” said Robin Bell, a polar scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York City, in an interview with Live Science.
The North Pole is a landlocked ocean. Antarctica is a piece of land surrounded by an ocean. Water cools and warms more slowly than land, causing temperatures to reach extremes less often. Even though the Arctic Ocean is covered in ice, the relatively high temperature of its waters has a moderating effect on the climate and helps keep the Arctic warmer than Antarctica.
Additionally, the Arctic is located at sea level, while Antarctica is the highest continent with an average elevation of 2,300 metres. As you can imagine, the higher a place is, the colder it is, unless there is a special circumstance (such as an active volcano).
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