Climate of extremes - Antarctica: Global Science from a Frozen Continent - page 112

Figure 4.9 Map of Antarctic topography showing the high East Antarctic plateau and lower

West Antarctic ice sheet. Both regions slope steeply down to the coast. (Credit: Matthew
Higgins, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado)

In the winter temperatures near the coast are near -15ºC while in the
interior temperatures drop to 65ºC.

Weather observations from the Antarctic indicate that the Antarctic is colder
than the Arctic. The radiation de

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cit is identical in both polar regions, so why is
Antarctica colder? The colder climate of Antarctica is due to the fact that Antarctica
is an elevated ice sheet, with maximum elevations over 4000m, while in the Arctic
the North Pole is located at sea level. Since temperature decreases with elevation
in the troposphere and the fact that Antarctica is at a much higher elevation than