Northern and Southern lights
Freezing and icebergs
Blizzards and snowstorms
Both are among the most arid places on Earth
Differences
The Antarctic is a continent and has an enormous amount of ice lying on top of a landmass; the Arctic is predominantly an ocean with a thin layer of ice floating on top.
The Arctic has trees; the Antarctic does not.
The Arctic Ocean (4000m deep) has a thin ice layer floating on top; the Antarctic landmass has up to 4000m ice on top.
The Arctic has tundra; no such vegetation in the Antarctic.
Atomic waste in the Arctic; problems of refuse disposal and potential oil exploitation in the Antarctic.
Weather
Arctic
Coldest temperature ever recorded: −68°C.
Coldest period of the year: when the sun reappears over the horizon.
With fluctuating weather systems, storms rarely last longer than 2–3 days.
At full moon and higher tides, the ice is much more dynamic; leads and compression zones are formed.
Many spring days with dense fog or white-out conditions.
Antarctic
The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was at Vostok Research Station at −89.2°C.
Hardly any precipitation (yearly average of 500mm a year).
Winds can blow up to 320km/h.
During storms, the height of snowdrift increases with wind strength.
Typically, katabatic winds roll down from the high plateau to the coastal areas with increasing velocity.
Animal and plant life
Similarities
Lichen and mosses.
Seals, whales and birds.
Krill and fish.
Differences
Polar bears in the Arctic; penguins in the Antarctic.
No terrestrial animals in the Antarctic; many in the Arctic, such as musk oxen, reindeer, caribou, foxes, hares, wolves, lemming, bears.
Algae in the Antarctic; not in the Arctic.
Human activity
Human population north of 60° North in the Arctic is in excess of 2 million with modern settlements, while in Antarctica there are no permanent residents, only a sparse population at scattered scientific stations.
The first crossing of the Antarctic Circle was by James Cook on 17 January 1773, while the first crossing of the Arctic Circle is prehistoric.
The Arctic has indigenous people, while the Antarctic does not.
Human presence in the Arctic dates back at least 14,000 years, while the first temporary settlements in the Antarctic were installed at the end of the 19th century.
There are scientific stations in both the Arctic and the Antarctic.
The Arctic has towns, while the Antarctic only has research bases.
Discovery of the Arctic considerably predates the first sightings of Antarctica.
Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis
Both Aurora appear around the polar regions. The Aurora Australis appears around Antarctica in the austral winter (winter in the Southern Hemisphere), while the Aurora Borealis appears around the Arctic during winter in the Northern Hemisphere. An Aurora Australis or an Aurora Borealis occurs when streams of particles from the sun's solar winds hit the Earth's atmosphere at an angle (as can only happen at the poles). These particles interact with the edges of the Earth's magnetic field, and when they collide with the gases in the ionosphere the particles glow, creating curtains of blue, green and magenta. An Aurora is sometimes accompanied by a crackling sound.
History of Exploration
The Arctic
Early exploration
Around the 16th century it was believed that the North Pole was to be found in a sea, with only a slight chance of reaching it when the ice floes would allow a passage. Whaling ships studied the weather and ice conditions out of curiosity while working in the area.
Economic reasons lured many early expeditions to the far ends of our globe
The first explorer to set out on an expedition specifically aimed at finding the North Pole was the Englishman William Edward Parry, who reached latitude 82°45’ in 1827. He was followed by the American Charles Francis Hall in 1871 with the Polaris expedition, which ended in disaster with his death in November of that year, the ship being crushed in the ice the following October.
The same fate awaited George Washington DeLong on the USS Jeanette, when the ship was crushed by ice at the end of their expedition between 1879 and 1881. DeLong and half of his crew were lost.
In 1895 Fridtjof Nansen invited Frederik Johansen to leave their icebound ship the Fram and try to reach the North Pole on skis. They managed to reach latitude 86°14’ and then began their incredible trek southward to reach Franz Jozef Land.
In 1897 Swedish engineer Salomon Andrée and two of his companions tried a novel way of reaching the North Pole using a hydrogen balloon, but were stranded 300km from their start point at Kvitoya in the northeastern part of the archipelago of Svalbard and lost their lives in the process.
Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, and Captain Umberto Cagni sailed the converted whaler Stella Polare from Norway in 1899. When they reached latitude 86°34’ on 25 April 1900 they had beaten Nansen's record by 40km.
1900–1940
The biggest mystery in the discovery of the North Pole arises from the claims of two controversial explorers, neither of whom managed to produce adequate proof that they had actually placed foot on the northern part of the imaginary axis between both poles.
The American explorer Frederick Cook claimed to have reached the North Pole on 21 April 1908 with two Inuit men, Ahwelah and Etukishook, but he was unable to produce convincing proof and his claim was widely disputed. Another American, Navy engineer Robert Peary, claimed to have reached the pole on 6 April 1909, accompanied by another American, Matthew Henson, and four Inuit men: Ootah, Seeglo, Egingwah and Ooqueah. However, Peary's claim remains unsubstantiated. The party that accompanied Peary on the final stage of the journey included no one who was trained in navigation and could independently confirm his own navigational work (which some claim to have been particularly sloppy as he approached the pole).
Many consider the distances and speeds that Peary claimed to have achieved once the last support party turned back – almost three times that which he had accomplished up to that point – incredible. Peary's account of a journey to the pole and back while travelling along the direct line – the only strategy that is consistent with the time constraints he was facing – is contradicted by Henson's account of tortuous detours to avoid pressure ridges and open leads.
The first recorded flight over the North Pole was made on 9 May 1926 by US naval officer Richard E Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett in a Fokker tri-motor aircraft but this claim has also been disputed.
The first undisputed sighting of the pole was on 12 May 1926 by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who used the airship Norge, together with his