Barrow is the most populated and northernmost city of Alaska with a population of around 4, Due to the position of the Arctic Circle on the planet, summer is a time of abundant light; and on the night of the northern summer solstice, part of the sun may be seen above the horizon at midnight! Darkness is a treat in the Arctic, as well.
As the sun starts setting again and the nights grow dark, depending on solar activity, the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis may light up the sky with breathtaking movement of color. What is the Arctic Circle? In the Arctic Circle, the sun does not set on summer solstice June 20 or 21 and is does not rise on winter solstice December 21 or The father north you travel, there are more days with hour sunlight during the summer months or hour darkness in the winter months.
At the North Pole, the sun does not set for days. The reason is that Ursa Major, the Great Bear constellation is viewed in the northern sky. The Arctic Circle marks the region above which, for at least 1 day a year, there is all day sunshine in the summer and hours of darkness in the winter.
If all of the ice in the Arctic melted, the global sea level would rise about 24 feet. If all of the ice in Antarctica melted, sea levels would rise about feet. Ralf Dobrovolny, was born in Heidelberg, Germany. He spent his early adulthood as an industrial salesman. The length of these long continuous days and nights are six months each at the North Pole. Their length decreases with distance from the North Pole. The approximate location of the Arctic Circle is plotted on the map at the top of this page as a dashed blue line.
The latitude of the Arctic Circle is slowly drifting northward at a speed of about 15 meters per year. This drift has nothing to do with climate change. Instead, the drift occurs because the Earth wobbles on its axis of rotation in a 40, year cycle in response to the gravitational attraction of the moon. To most of the general public, using the Arctic Circle as the defining southern boundary for "the Arctic" is easy and makes total sense. However, some researchers believe that there are better ways to draw a map of the Arctic.
The warmest month of the year is almost always July. The arctic treeline is the northern geographic limit of tree survival. North of the treeline, temperatures are so cold that trees are killed when their inner sap freezes in winter.
An Arctic winter has days without sunlight, and the summer has days where the sun never sets which is why it's called the "land of the midnight sun". Throughout the year, temperatures can span a wide range. Average lows reach degrees Fahrenheit in the winter and average highs reach 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. A short growing season, permafrost, and long, dark winters of extreme cold and strong winds mean the Arctic is nearly treeless and only small plants can grow. Although the Arctic is gaining popularity worldwide as a tourism and wildlife-watching destination, the region has always been vital to the identity, culture, and survival of its indigenous people.
Tribes, such as the Gwich'in people of northeast Alaska and Canada's northern Yukon and Northwest Territories, depend on the migratory caribou herds and the Arctic fisheries for food. To adapt to the harsh climate, they developed warm dwellings and protective clothing. Many Arctic people now live with modern homes and appliances, however, there's still a desire to pass on traditional knowledge and skills—such as hunting, fishing, herding, and native languages—to younger generations.
The Arctic is a unique ecosystem with a complex food web made up of organisms adapted to its extreme conditions. It is one of the most biologically productive ecosystems in the world, supporting many large fisheries and huge populations of migratory birds that come to the Arctic in the summer to breed. Arctic wildlife have special adaptations that enable them to survive in their icy and changeable environment. Arctic foxes, polar bears , and caribou have hollow hair that traps air, providing them with insulation.
Polar bears also have black skin to soak up as much of the sun's rays as possible. Their fur is almost transparent, but appears white due to the reflection of sunlight. Other animals change color with the seasons to blend in with the changing tundra ground cover, like arctic foxes and ptarmigans that go from brown in summer to white in winter. Some fish that live in or under the ice have antifreeze compounds in their blood, while seals, whales, and walruses have a thick layer of fat, called blubber, that helps insulate them from the cold.
Migratory birds use the Arctic to feed, nest, and raise their young. Many of these birds migrate to and from all 50 states and across six continents. A large portion of the Arctic region includes the Arctic Ocean, which is home to an amazing array of wildlife, including endangered bowhead whales, endangered polar bears, beluga whales, endangered ringed seals, and Pacific walruses. America's Arctic includes the Located in the northeast corner of Alaska, this protected area is home to more than bird species, which migrate to the refuge to breed in the summer.
As many as , snow geese visit the coastal plain each fall to feed on the tundra. The ice drifts around the polar basin under the influence of winds and currents. When the floes collide, the ice forms a jagged line of ice chunks known as a pressure ridge.
The Arctic Ocean seafloor is subdivided by three great parallel mountain ranges, or ridges, between Greenland and Siberia. The Pole Abyssal Plain, an elongated trough of flat seafloor, lies between the Arctic Ridge and the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater mountain chain that averages 3, meters 10, feet high above the abyssal plain and in places comes to within meters 3, ft of the surface.
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