Adele Traniello, Age 11, Of Sonerville, for her question:
Where is the coldest place on earth?
The coldest day in the world's weather records was Aug. 9, 1958. The place was deep in the heart of Antarctica., which is without question the coldest place on the face of the earth. It is a vast area of cold climate. And scientists suspect that what happens there plays a vital role in the entire global weather picture
A scientific study of the south polar climate was started during the international geophysical year. Temperature records were taken at many locations on land and sea., under the ice and at several layers of the atmosphere. The average monthly temperatures ranged from minus 13 to minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit., and no other place in the world can compare with this chilly year round climate.
The yearly snowfall of Antarctica is equal to only a few inches of rain. But cold., dry winds of gale force swirl into the heart of the continent, especially during the winter season.. The land area is covered with massive glaciers pierced here and there by the bare peaks of lofty mountain ranges. The south polar ice cap contains 90% of the world's frozen water.
The land and frozen glaciers of Antarctica are surrounded by icy seas and cut off from the other land masses of the world. Ocean currents bearing fields of ice floes circle around and around its shores. The climate of this remote, isolated region should, you think, have little to do with the global weather picture. But it does the sun heats the face of the globe in uneven patches. We get more heat in summer, and the tropics get more heat than the polar regions. But we can estimate the average quota of heat which falls upon the face of the entire globe.
This budget of solar heat is circulated by air and water around the globe. A vast amount of heat from warmer latitudes is wafted to Antarctica. If we had to pay for this heat, it would cost 1000 times more than the world's electricity bill. The icy surface and the chilly air of the world's coldest region radiates most of this solar heat back into space.
Dust and water vapor tend to prevent heat from escaping from the air into outer space. The atmosphere of Antarctica is almost free from dust and vapor, and surface heat passes rapidly from the 1ower to the upper levels of the air. An icy surface tends to reflect back most of the sun's heat, and the south polar region is mostly icy. Antarctica radiates 76% of its midsummer heat back into space. The coldest climate on earth rejects most of the heat it gets frown the sun, and it also steals and loses vast quantities of solar heat which falls upon warmer latitudes.