Geography

• The polar regions are defined as being north of 66.5 degrees northern latitude and south of 66.5 degrees southern latitude. The Arctic, or northern polar region, comprises the Arctic Ocean, which is covered with ice at the extreme north, and the northern fringes of Asia, North America and Europe. The Antarctic is that region around the South Pole, which is a land mass and the bordering oceans. While many human settlements exist in the northern polar region, no permanent ones are in Antarctica, only scientific research stations.
  
  

Time Frame

• The tilt of the Earth on its axis causes the hours of sunlight at the polar regions to differ from those elsewhere on the planet. The nearer you are to one of the poles, the less sunlight you will experience on winter days. As the Earth makes its way around the sun during its orbit, it is tilted away from the sun's rays in winter in the Northern Hemisphere, with the Southern Hemisphere being tilted toward the sun. This is even more exaggerated in the polar regions, where at the exact North and South Poles, six months of darkness follow six months of continual sunlight. During spring and summer, the North Pole has more sunlight, while the South Pole has darkness. This is reversed in the fall and winter months.
  
  

Size

• The North Pole, that point which is 90 degrees north on the map, is covered with ice. The depth of the Arctic Ocean at that point is 13,980 feet and the nearest land is an island that is some 440 miles distant. The average January temperature there is -30 degrees Fahrenheit, with 32 degrees the average in the summer. Antarctica has an area over 5.4 million square miles and a coastline equaling over 11,000 miles. It is encased almost entirely by a mile-thick sheet of ice. The coldest place on Earth, this polar land sees winter temperatures between 100 and 120 degrees below zero. Summer mercury readings rarely reach 50 degrees on the coast.
  
  

Features

• One feature of the polar regions are the northern and southern lights. These are also known as aurora and result from protons and electrons that make their way from the sun and into the Earth's atmosphere. They are attracted to the planet's magnetic poles and are full of energy. This energy causes the gases present in the atmosphere to light up, creating a spectacular show of colored and waving lights visible from the polar regions and high latitudes.
  
  

Misconceptions

• One of the most common misconceptions about polar regions involves animal life there. Polar bears are found in the Arctic and not the Antarctic. Penguins do not inhabit the Arctic at all, but are found in the Antarctic---though not exclusively there.