Image via YouTube
Antarctica is big, beautiful, cold and, during its summer season, remarkably sunny.
While you may already be well aware of this fact, the following video does a wonderful job of encapsulating what it might be like to live out 24 hours in some of the most extreme conditions experienced on this planet.
Anthony Powell posted the video to YouTube (h/t Digg), and it shows a stubborn sun that refuses to set on the freezing tundra.
While the temperature remains frigid, the sun continues to shine on some of the most desolate swaths of land we have seen.
Here is a reminder that the respite of night isn't exactly a given on some portions of the world.
Powell explains on YouTube: "In the summer time at Scott Base the sun is above the horizon for 4 months, from roughly the end of the third week of October until the end of the third week of February. This shows the movement of the sun over a full 24 hour period near the peak of summer."
Now as you might suspect, the alternative is also true. The winter months mean the continent is completely shrouded in darkness. So it's feast or famine when it comes to daylight extremes.
The Australian government states the following on its website: "On Antarctica's coast, where our stations are located, there are usually a couple of weeks in mid-winter (around 21 June) when the sun does not rise, and a couple of weeks in summer around Christmas when there is 24-hour sunlight."
The following video sums things up nicely regarding the Antarctic winter:
Summer is usually the time when we enjoy a modicum more sunlight than any other time of the year, which means further opportunity to hit the beach or fire up the barbecue.
In Antarctica, it means that the sun never sets, pushing researchers off their normal sense of time.
Sadly, this isn't the kind of oasis that would benefit from extra beach time.
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