Why is the South Pole cold than the North Pole? S1.______ Both polar regions of the earth are cold, primarily because they receive far less solar radiation than the tropics and mid-latitudes do. In either pole the sun S2.______ never rises more than 23.5 degrees above the horizon and both locations experience six months of continuous dark. Moreover, most of the sunlight that does shine S3.______ on the polar regions reflected by the bright white surface. S4.______ What make the South Pole so much colder than the North Pole S5.______ is that it sits on top of a very thick ice sheet, which itself sits on a continent. Surface of the ice sheet at the South Pole S6.______ is more than 9000 feet in elevation—more than a mile and a half over sea level. Antarctica is the highest continent S7.______ on the earth. In comparison, the North Pole rests in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, which the surface of floating ice rides S8.______ only a foot or so above the surrounding sea. The Arctic Ocean also acts an effective heat reservoir, warming the cold atmosphere S9.______ in the winter and is drawing heat from the atmosphere in the summer. S10.______ 【S1】