Why is the South Pole cold than the North Pole? 【M1】______ 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 【M2】______ 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 【M3】______ on the polar regions reflected by the bright white surface. 【M4】 ______ What make the South Pole so much colder than the North Pole 【M5】 ______ 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 【M6】______ is more than 9000 feet in elevation--more than a mile and a half over sea level. Antarctica is the highest continent 【M7】______ on the earth. In comparison, the North Pole rests in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, which the surface of floating ice rides 【M8】______ only a foot or so above the surrounding sea. The Arctic Ocean also acts an effective heat reservoir, warming the cold atmosphere 【M9】______ in the winter and is drawing heat from the atmosphere in the summer. 【M10】______ 【M1】