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Hot deserts and polar regions

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A desert is any place with very little rain. Some are blazing hot; the biggest of all is frozen.

What is a desert?

A desert receives less than about 250 mm of rain a year.
Hot deserts are mostly found near the Tropics (around 15 to 30 degrees north and south), where dry air sinks, creating high pressure and clear skies.
Examples: the Sahara (the largest hot desert), the Arabian Desert, the Kalahari and the Atacama.
Days are very hot, but clear skies let heat escape, so nights can be cold.

Life in hot deserts

Plants and animals are adapted: cacti store water; some plants have long roots; camels can go a long time without drinking and have wide feet for sand.
People have traditionally been nomadic herders or lived near oases. Today there is oil and gas extraction, tourism and solar power.
Desertification is when land on the edge of deserts turns to desert, through drought, overgrazing and removing trees, as in parts of the Sahel.

Polar regions

Antarctica is a continent covered by a huge ice sheet. It is the largest desert in the world, because it gets so little precipitation. The lowest natural temperature measured on Earth, minus 89.2 degrees C, was recorded there in 1983.
The Antarctic Treaty (1959) keeps it for peace and science.
The Arctic is mainly a frozen ocean surrounded by land. People such as the Inuit have lived there for thousands of years.
Polar bears live in the Arctic; penguins live in the south, including Antarctica.
Worked example

Why can a hot desert be freezing at night?

  1. Hot deserts have very few clouds.
  2. In the day the sun heats the ground strongly.
  3. At night there are no clouds to trap the heat, so it escapes quickly and temperatures fall sharply.

Answer: Clear skies let the day's heat escape quickly at night.

Key idea

Deserts get less than about 250 mm of rain a year. Hot deserts lie near the Tropics (Sahara is the largest hot desert). Adaptations and desertification. Antarctica: an ice-covered continent, the largest desert, protected by the Antarctic Treaty (1959). The Arctic: a frozen ocean with Indigenous peoples such as the Inuit.

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