About Antarctica
Antarctica is a vast land of extremes with a diverse landscape. This isolated continent holds over 10% of the earth’s land area and is over twice the size of Australia. Giant icebergs break off each year and half of the surrounding ocean freezes over in winter, causing the size of the continent to double.
Tourists cannot visit Antarctica during the winter as expanding ice makes ship access impossible, and it remains dark for almost 24 hours a day. Temperatures drop as low as -80 or 90 Celsius in winter. In December and January during the Antarctic austral summer, the temperature rises to -35 Celsius and the land receives approximately 20 hours of daylight each day making it slightly more bearable for visitors. Antarctica is so cold due to 80% of incoming radiation from sun is reflected back into space by ice and snow, while rest 20% absorbed by the atmosphere or reflected by clouds.
With very little snowfall, Antarctica is the driest continent on earth – the absolute humidity is lower than that of the Sahara Desert. In some places like the Dry Valleys, it has not rained for thousands of years.
Antarctica has no permanent human population, but it is a home to over 45 bird species including penguins and petrels. The Southern Ocean supports many types of fish, seal, whale, and sea bird species. The land also supports many different species of algae, moss, and grass species.
Many of the seasonal visitors to
Antarctica are scientists from countries around the world. They visit
Antarctica to study the organisms that live in the unspoiled ecosystem, the effect of climate change, and also to find clues to the origins of the universe. More meteorites have been collected from
Antarctica than anywhere else in the world, and the environment is so similar to that of Mars that NASA looks to the Antarctic to understand what life might be like and to prepare for a possible mission.
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