How do arctic explorers cope with subfreezing temperatures?
539814
Specialized clothing...very specialized.
150789
I think yes, definately! I work on Alaska's North Slope and I know that sound absolutely travels better at extremely cold temperatures. When it is minus 40 or 50 F you can hear vehicles coming from a much greater distance for example. Can't say why exactly. Maybe because the molecules in the air are closer together (condensed) and therefore transmit sound more efficiently (like water).
1100175
The cold is hard on the battery.
97291
When you drink, the ice would be at the bottom of the glass. There would be no icebergs above water, no Antarctica. There would have been no ice age. No iceskating, no hockey, no icefishing (at least not naturally). Submarines would have to navigate more carefully because large chunks of icebergs would be under water. No polar bears, penguins, and any other animal that lives in the Arctic Circle or Antarctica. Those animals live on the ice and wouldn't be able to survive without it.
803927
Yes, it would be that cold. April is still very cold in those waters. The Atlantic does in fact freeze at that latitude. Open waters do not get much seasonal ice do to wave action, but bays can and do freeze up. The seals breed on seasonal ice which is drifting out to sea by the time they whelp, and a few years ago an icebreaker had to be used to keep Boston harbour open
661985
Few complex life forms we know of can survive exposure temperatures that low for more than a moment. However, if pockets of milder temperatures could be found (thermal vents, well isulated hybernation dens, etc) some life would likely adapt. Life forms that could mature and reproduce in one warm season (such as a plant that produces spores capable of surviving such a harsh winter) would have a great advantage. Plants such as trees woudn't stand a chance, as is true of many things humans and other complex life depend on for food and shelter. \n\nAnother consideration would be the erosion due to lack of any plants capable of maintaining a root system to stablize soil. Between the turbidity from erosion and likelyhood that all rivers would freeze solid through most of the winter, most life in rivers and lakes would become extinct. Since the upper temperature is not much if any higher than what we have now, the average temperatue is much lower. This would concentrate vast amounts of water in the icecaps, possibly enough to greatly increase the salinity of the oceans, which would also see a major drop in temperature. Most marine life is more sensitive to temperatue changes than terrestrial or freshwater life, so a great number of extinctions there also.\n\nSo no, life would not survive other than perhaps a few simple life forms. Even a drop of a dozen degrees in average temperature would be devastating in the long run for life as we know it.
322288
How will you keep warm?\nIt will be lonely without other people, including women.\nYou need to work on modular housing for atmospheric-interior pressure differentials.\nYou need to know where the water is located and how to get a handle on it.\nYou need energy source(s).\nYou need entirely new clothing and suit for outdoors.\nYou need a food supply and a plan for replenishment.\nWhat is most valuable or needed will not be known for sure until people gain experience by living there.\nLots of people will also need a Doctor/Surgeon.\nYou will need to visit Finland first.\nYou will need to know sub-surface temperatures, have a piping engineer, a construction engineer (specialized).\nShould you live underground? How far? What about meteorites?\nHow best to make use of existing terrain? Needs a very old geologist with lots of experience everywhere.\nWhat about people who become criminals or go nuts? You need to be able to send them back to earth...the alternatives are not pretty.\nYou need lots of energy-efficient bio-friendly lighting, especially to avoid depression.\nSame for plants -- which ones? Some colorful veggies and flowers, for sure.\nSo you will also need gardeners, horticulturist.\nYou will need excavating equipment that operates in this environment.\nWhat kind of transportation is best for Mars??????\n\nJust a start, but if you do not think of these things first, you will have trapped yourself in a place worse than Earth, though that may be hard to imagine until you consider the matter.\n\nShould weapons be allowed or banned?\nHow will the community be governed?\nDemocracy would apply to some things, in other cases the person who knows must be dictator, lest unforgiving mistakes result.\n\nMany things we take for granted here will need constant monitoring. More recycling necessary, less garbage.\n\nWhat about long distance transport, need aircraft adapted to Martian atmospheric conditions.\n\nThis all has to grow for many, many years before it will approach self-sustaining. Meanwhile, without planet Earth to call on for help...\n\nVisit Biosphere and Antarctica before you decide
660432
Cold water is the best in this situation. Ice is too cold and can damage the surrounding area.
1143670
(m)\n\nFor many years scientists have tried to understand the unique properties of ice in terms of the behavior of the molecules in the topmost layer. However, despite extensive studies the exact structure and dynamical motion of the individual water molecules at the ice surface have remained elusive. An international team of physicists (J. Braun, A. Glebov, A. P. Graham, A. Menzel) in the group of Peter Toennies at the Max Planck Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Göttingen have used the scattering of very low-energy He atoms for the successful analysis of the structural arrangement of water molecules on the ice surface and have also gained direct information on their vibrational motion. The results of these experiments, published in the March 23 issue of the Physical Review Letters [80, 2638 (1998)], indicate that the molecules are surprisingly mobile which explains many peculiarities in the interactions of ice with its environment. \n\nWhy do solid ice crystals have a melted surface-layer at temperatures far below the bulk melting point 0°C, that allows us to ski, skate and slide so easily; Why do two pieces of ice, when put together, adhere and become one; Why are different molecules in the earth stratosphere easily trapped on the surface of ice particles, where they can react, with consequences such as depletion of the ozone layer? This wide variety of intriguing questions have made ice one of the most frequently studied materials. However, until now, no definite answers to these and many other questions have been forthcoming since all of the attempts to gain information on the microscopic structure of a single crystal ice surface have failed. Very recently, even the powerful method of electron diffraction, routinely used in surface structure analysis, failed to provide any clear evidence on the structural arrangement of the topmost layer of ice. The group of scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Free University in Amsterdam, and the University of Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris [Surface Science 381, 190 (1997); also see report of Charles Seife in Science 274, 2012 (1996)] have suggested, on the basis of theoretical simulations, that the uppermost water molecules vibrate so strongly that a coherent diffraction pattern cannot be observed.\n\nIn the attempt to resolve this problem the researchers in Göttingen have employed low-energy helium atom scattering. This technique has the advantage of being completely nondestructive and exclusively sensitive to the topmost layer of crystals. Since the (111) surface of platinum has nearly the same lattice spacing as ice, it was used as a template on which single crystal ice films of 10-100 nm thickness were grown. Only after cooling the surface to 30 K was it possible to observe a sharp intense series of diffraction peaks. These not only provide information on the lattice spacing and arrangement of the first layer molecules but also indicate at least a partial alignment of the hydrogen atoms (ferroelectric ordering) at the surface.\n\nA further advantage of the He atom scattering technique is that with the same equipment high-resolution time-of-flight energy loss and gain spectra can be measured. These spectra provide information on the frequencies and wave-lengths of the collective vibrations (phonons) at the surface. As the crystal was again cooled down to 30 K, a very intense inelastic peak emerged from a strong multiphonon background. This intense inelastic peak was simulated with a theoretical model which allowed its assignment to a special very large amplitude in-plane shearing motion of the surface molecules. At higher temperatures, this motion becomes increasingly enhanced leading to a high density "phonon bath" and ultimately individual molecules will break away from their original sites. This explains the liquid-like topmost layer as well as the difficulties experienced in the electron diffraction experiments.
6091
'Each year, as the ice begins to skim Minnesota’s lakes and ponds, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources receives hundreds of phone calls from anxious anglers who all have the same basic question: "Is the ice safe yet?" That’s when I whip out my trusty stock answer: "No, ice is NEVER safe."\n\n[...]\n\nHere are a few general guidelines for use by winter recreation enthusiasts to lessen their chances for an icy dip or worse. It’s impossible to judge the strength of ice by its appearance, thickness, daily temperature, or snow cover alone. Ice strength is actually dependent on all four factors, plus water depth under the ice, the size of the water and water chemistry, currents, and distribution of the load on the ice.\n\n[...]\n\n* Snowmobiles and ATV’s need at least 5 inches, and cars and light trucks need at least 8-12 inches of good clear ice.\n\n* Wear a life jacket. Life vests or float coats provide excellent flotation and protection from hypothermia (loss of body temperature). Never wear a life jacket if you are traveling in an enclosed vehicle, however. It could hamper escape in case of a breakthrough.\n\n* Carry a pair of homemade ice picks or even a pair of screwdrivers tied together with a few yards of strong cord that can be used to pull yourself up and onto the ice if you do fall in. Be sure they have wooden handles so if you drop them in the struggle to get out of the water, they won’t go straight to the bottom!\n\n* Avoid driving on the ice whenever possible. Traveling in a vehicle, especially early or late in the season is simply "an accident waiting to happen." In the 117 ice fatalities occurring in Minnesota since 1976, 68 percent involved a vehicle.\n\n* Be prepared to bail out in a hurry if you find it necessary to use a car, unbuckle your seatbelt and have a plan of action if you do breakthrough. Some safety experts recommend driving with the window rolled down and the doors ajar for an easy escape. Move your car frequently. Parking in one place for a long period weakens ice. Don’t park near cracks, and watch out for pressure ridges or ice heaves.\n\n* Don’t drive across ice at night or when it is snowing. Reduced visibility increases your chances for driving into an open or weak ice area.\n\n* Check at the access if there are signs that indicate an aeration system is in operation on the lake. Aerators keep areas of water open to provide oxygen for fish. The ice can be weakened many yards beyond where the ice is actually open. Stay well outside the fenced areas indicated by diamond shaped thin ice signs.'\n\n---\n\n'How can you tell if a lake is frozen solid enough to drive on? The surest way to know is to wait until several other cars and trucks have safely driven across the ice. Even then, you should always be extra careful when driving across a frozen lake.\n\nIt's possible that one section of the lake has currents that prevent the lake from freezing solid. Or there might be a river or stream that brings slightly warmer water into one part of the lake. So even though most of the lake was frozen solid, one section of the lake could have thin ice.'\n\n---\n\n'If you're driving your car (didn't we just say we don't recommend that) safety experts recommend that you drive with the windows down and your seatbelt off. Don't take this an excuse to drive without a seatbelt full time just in case you drive into a lake. Out on the ice you are driving on a lake and if the ice gives way from under you it is critical to get out of your vehicle before it is submerged.  A car crashing into water can sink in a matter of seconds.'\n\n---\n\n'Take a hard look at the ice before you leap. Clear blue ice is the strongest, and it still takes three inches to safely hold a single person, and five to six inches to safely hold a group of people or a snowmobile. You supposedly can venture out onto thinner ice if you distribute your weig
205775
Come on!  Dry Ice!\n\nTemperatures below -78 degrees Farenheit\n\nAnd your planet is Mars, but its water AND carbon dioxide in the polar caps....
192646
cold, very cold and majestic.
285026
You know what they say? Go straight to the source!\n\nhttp://www.arcticcat.com/snow/
589389
This is going to sound ridiculous, but I have seen methanol (wood alcohol) used to wash the windows of light aircraft here in Alaska in winter. Fairbanks is easily as cold as your freezer. Isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) might work as well if the water content were low enough.\n\nVentilation would be a BIG concern though. Don't know how to accomplish ventilating the freezer without defrosting it.\n\nHope this helps\n\nOuzinki
86826
the answer is:\nyou can't face north if you are in the north pole\nthink about it
701812
hehe that's funny.\n\nBut I would not want to be cryogenically frozen! :)
73569
Migration to warmer regions. Not all of the earth was covered in ice.