{"id":868,"date":"2017-04-26T21:48:09","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T21:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/geophysical\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=868"},"modified":"2017-04-27T21:05:46","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T21:05:46","slug":"polar-climates-group-e","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geophysical\/chapter\/polar-climates-group-e\/","title":{"raw":"Polar Climates (Group E)","rendered":"Polar Climates (Group E)"},"content":{"raw":"Polar climates are found across the continents that border the Arctic Ocean, Greenland, and Antarctica. What climate characteristics is the polar climate group most likely to have?\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Temperature: Winters are entirely dark and bitterly cold. Summer days are long, but the sun is low on the horizon so summers are cool. The average temperature of the warmest month at less than 10\u00a0\u00baC (50\u00a0\u00baF). The annual temperature range is large.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Precipitation: The region is dry with less than 25 cm (10 inches) of precipitation annually; most precipitation occurs during the summer.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h2>Polar Tundra\u00a0(ET)<\/h2>\r\n<img class=\"alignright wp-image-928\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/250\/2017\/04\/27201141\/polar_tundra-e1493323975188.jpg\" alt=\"A frosty ground with very low brown vegetation. Mountains rise up along the horizon\" width=\"400\" height=\"240\" \/>The polar tundra climate is continental, with severe winters. Temperatures are so cold that a layer of permanently frozen ground, called <strong>permafrost\u00a0<\/strong>forms below the surface. This frozen layer can extend hundreds of meters deep. The average temperature of the warmest months is above freezing, so summer temperatures defrost the uppermost portion of the permafrost. In winter, the permafrost prevents water from draining downward. In summer, the ground is swampy. Although the precipitation is low enough in many places to qualify as a desert, evaporation rates are also low, so the landscape receives more usable water than a desert.\r\n\r\nBecause of the lack of ice-free land near the South Pole, there is very little tundra in the Southern Hemisphere. The only plants that can survive the harsh winters and soggy summers are small ground-hugging plants like mosses, lichens, small shrubs, and scattered small trees that make up the <strong>tundra<\/strong>.\r\n<h2>Ice Cap<\/h2>\r\n<strong>Ice caps<\/strong> are found mostly on Greenland and Antarctica, about 9\u00a0percent of the Earth's land area. Ice caps may be thousands of meters thick. Ice cap areas have extremely low average annual temperatures, e.g. \u221229\u00a0\u00baC (\u221220\u00a0\u00baF) at Eismitte, Greenland. Precipitation is low because the air is too cold to hold much moisture. Snow occasionally falls in the summer.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-929\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/250\/2017\/04\/27201334\/Auyuittuq-e1493324057217.jpg\" alt=\"Snow covered plateaus\" width=\"800\" height=\"416\" \/>","rendered":"<p>Polar climates are found across the continents that border the Arctic Ocean, Greenland, and Antarctica. What climate characteristics is the polar climate group most likely to have?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Temperature: Winters are entirely dark and bitterly cold. Summer days are long, but the sun is low on the horizon so summers are cool. The average temperature of the warmest month at less than 10\u00a0\u00baC (50\u00a0\u00baF). The annual temperature range is large.<\/li>\n<li>Precipitation: The region is dry with less than 25 cm (10 inches) of precipitation annually; most precipitation occurs during the summer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Polar Tundra\u00a0(ET)<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-928\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/250\/2017\/04\/27201141\/polar_tundra-e1493323975188.jpg\" alt=\"A frosty ground with very low brown vegetation. Mountains rise up along the horizon\" width=\"400\" height=\"240\" \/>The polar tundra climate is continental, with severe winters. Temperatures are so cold that a layer of permanently frozen ground, called <strong>permafrost\u00a0<\/strong>forms below the surface. This frozen layer can extend hundreds of meters deep. The average temperature of the warmest months is above freezing, so summer temperatures defrost the uppermost portion of the permafrost. In winter, the permafrost prevents water from draining downward. In summer, the ground is swampy. Although the precipitation is low enough in many places to qualify as a desert, evaporation rates are also low, so the landscape receives more usable water than a desert.<\/p>\n<p>Because of the lack of ice-free land near the South Pole, there is very little tundra in the Southern Hemisphere. The only plants that can survive the harsh winters and soggy summers are small ground-hugging plants like mosses, lichens, small shrubs, and scattered small trees that make up the <strong>tundra<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Ice Cap<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Ice caps<\/strong> are found mostly on Greenland and Antarctica, about 9\u00a0percent of the Earth&#8217;s land area. Ice caps may be thousands of meters thick. Ice cap areas have extremely low average annual temperatures, e.g. \u221229\u00a0\u00baC (\u221220\u00a0\u00baF) at Eismitte, Greenland. Precipitation is low because the air is too cold to hold much moisture. Snow occasionally falls in the summer.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-929\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/250\/2017\/04\/27201334\/Auyuittuq-e1493324057217.jpg\" alt=\"Snow covered plateaus\" width=\"800\" height=\"416\" \/><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-868\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Dynamic Earth: Introduction to Physical Geography. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: R. Adam Dastrup. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.opengeography.org\/physical-geography.html\">http:\/\/www.opengeography.org\/physical-geography.html<\/a>. <strong>Project<\/strong>: Open Geography Education. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Permafrost Morning. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Preston Rhea. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/8dQQsy\">https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/8dQQsy<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Auyuittuq National Park: Penny Ice Cap. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Ansgar Walk. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Auyuittuq_NP_8_2001-07-25.jpg\">https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Auyuittuq_NP_8_2001-07-25.jpg<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":17,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Dynamic Earth: Introduction to Physical Geography\",\"author\":\"R. Adam Dastrup\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.opengeography.org\/physical-geography.html\",\"project\":\"Open Geography Education\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Permafrost Morning\",\"author\":\"Preston Rhea\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/8dQQsy\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Auyuittuq National Park: Penny Ice Cap\",\"author\":\"Ansgar Walk\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Auyuittuq_NP_8_2001-07-25.jpg\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-868","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":596,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geophysical\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geophysical\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geophysical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geophysical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geophysical\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":930,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geophysical\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/868\/revisions\/930"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geophysical\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/596"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geophysical\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/868\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geophysical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geophysical\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=868"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geophysical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=868"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geophysical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}