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The polar climate regions are characterized by a lack of warm summers but with varying winters. Every month a polar climate has an average temperature of less than 10 °C (50 °F). Regions with a polar climate cover more than 20% of the Earth's area.
Visualization of the ice and snow covering Earth's northern and southern polar regions Northern Hemisphere permafrost (permanently frozen ground) in purple. The polar regions, also called the frigid zones or polar zones, of Earth are Earth's polar ice caps, the regions of the planet that surround its geographical poles (the North and South Poles), lying within the polar circles.
The Köppen climate classification divides climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are A (tropical), B (arid), C (temperate), D (continental), and E (polar). Each group and subgroup is represented by a letter.
These primary types are A) tropical, B) dry, C) mild mid-latitude, D) cold mid-latitude, and E) polar. Tropical climates are defined as locations where the coolest monthly mean temperature is above 18 C (64.4 F). This tropical zone is further broken down into rainforest, monsoon, and savanna based on seasonal rainfall.
The two frigid zones, or polar regions, experience the midnight sun and the polar night for part of the year – at the edge of the zone there remains one day, the winter solstice, when the Sun is too low to rise, and one day at the summer solstice when the Sun remains above the horizon for 24 hours.
The climate generally covers areas at high altitudes and polar regions (60–90° north and south latitude), such as Antarctica and some of the northernmost islands of Canada and Russia. Most of Greenland is under the influence of an ice cap climate, although the coasts are prone to more influence from the sea, providing more tundra climates.
The climate of the Arctic is characterized by long, cold winters and short, cool summers. There is a large amount of variability in climate across the Arctic , but all regions experience extremes of solar radiation in both summer and winter.
Polar climates are cold, windy and dry. Because of the lack of precipitation and low temperatures the Arctic and Antarctic are considered the world's largest deserts or Polar deserts . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Much of the radiation from the Sun that is received is reflected off the snow making the polar regions cold. [ 3 ]