About 10,000 tourists every year visit Antarctica- the coldest place in the world. Only about 1,000 people live there throughout the freezing winters, however when the temperature can be as low as minus 90 Centigrade. The low temperatures in Antarctica are absolutely vital to the world’s ecosystem. As world temperatures rise and ice melts, sea levels rise and people all over the world will be affected more and more.

For example if you want to book a tour, you’ll be told about possible dangers. If you fall in the water, your brain will freeze in 90 seconds or you might be eaten by a seal. As soon as you reach Paulet Island, however, and you see the amazing sight of 100, 000 penguins, you’ll forget all about that.

The highest mountain in Antarctica is Vinson Massif. It’s 4, 877 metres high. Antarctica is a lovely place, there you can found an extremely new beautiful life.

On board are all the facilities you’d expect on a 22,000 ton luxury liner dedicated to the finest traditions of cruising. Savor delicious cuisine in two restaurants. Enjoy a nightclub, a disco, a Health Club and Beauty Center with aerobics studio & saunas, a swimming pool, Jacuzzis, a library, a casino, a card room and an array of lounges, including a piano bar and tea room. There are gracious public rooms for fun and activity, as well as cozy nooks for quiet moments of relaxation. It’s the perfect mix.

Traveling with around 700 passengers, you’ll never feel as if you’re just part of the crowd. The atmosphere aboard is warm and friendly, with gentleman hosts to assure that unescorted ladies enjoy ship activities, also a guest lecturer series. Renowned for her skilled Scandinavian officers and the warm smiles of her Filipino service staff, the Marco Polo the perfect ship for exploring the world’s most fascinating ports.

Marco Polo Highlights:

* Ship Specifications: Gross Registered Tons: 22,080 tons
* Length: 578.4 feet
* Beam: 77.4 feet
* Maximum Draft: 26.9 feet
* Number of Decks: 12
* Cruising Speed: 19.5 knots
* Number of Passengers: 850
* Number of Ship Personnel: 350
* Deck Officers Scandinavian
* Crew Filipino
* Social Staff British and American

Below you can view some photos from the ship

Nacreous clouds glow brightly with vivid iridescent colours. They are wave clouds and their undulating sheet-like forms reveal the winds and waves of the stratosphere.

Nacreous means pearlescene or pearl-like. These stunning clouds, sometimes called mother-of-pearl clouds, are observed in the Antarctic each Austral spring and fall when upper air temperatures drop low enough for their formation. Nacreous clouds typically occur in the stratosphere, at heights of between 10 and 30 km, where the temperature falls below -80 degrees C. They’re likely composed of ice particles with a liquid coating of nitric acid tri-hydrate, and they appear bright or luminescent because they’re sufficiently high to be illuminated by the Sun, long after local sunset. At higher latitudes, the Sun is never far from the horizon from late spring through early fall. The pastel colors of nacreous clouds are attributable to the process of diffraction.
Nacreous clouds are often observed along the Antarctic Peninsula where mountains create lee-waves in the upper atmosphere. The conditions that allow them to form may persist for several months. On occasion, they’ve been seen as far equatorward as southern England. Stratospheric clouds are associated with ozone depletion since they provide the necessary environment for the chlorine based catalytic photochemistry that destroys ozone at around 1% per day.

You can also read about another amazing phenomenon called Colours of Aurora in Antarctica

The amazing color displays and formations are produced by the solar wind – a stream of electrons and protons coming from the sun — as it collides with gases in the upper atmosphere. These collisions produce electrical discharges which energize atoms of oxygen and nitrogen causing the release of various colors of light. Earth’s magnetic field channels these discharges toward the poles. Variations in sunspot activity or the occurrence of so-called ‘coronal holes’ can often considerably enhance the auroral discharge adding to the intensity and duration of the displays.

The global distribution of auroral activity is an oval around the magnetic poles in both hemispheres. As the level of magnetic disturbance of the Earth’s magnetic field increases, the oval of auroral activity expands equatorward. Known as ‘Aurora borealis’ in the north, auroras occur in the upper atmosphere of both poles and are occasionally visible from middle latitudes as a dark red glow near the poleward horizon.

The chance of observing auroras is strongly correlated with the sunspot cycle. Auroral activity over Antarctica peaks near the peak of the sunspot cycle and for the following couple of years. Auroral displays are more common near the equinoxes, but this does not preclude the occurrence of aurora at other times. One can only observe auroral displays at the South Pole during the six months from March to September; the rest of year the Pole experiences 24 hours of sunlight.
Although auroras appear in many forms — pillars, streaks, wisps and halos of vibrating color — they’re most memorable when they take the form of pale curtains which seem to float on a breeze of light. Most commonly, auroral glows form a band aligned in a magnetic east-west direction. If sufficient numbers of energetic electrons are impacting the upper atmosphere, bands may have shimmering rays extending upwards from them. These rays define magnetic field lines along which the auroral electrons travel into the atmosphere. The twisting of auroral rays and bands results from the dynamic interaction of electric currents and magnetic fields in the upper atmosphere. In active displays, multiple bands may be visible. These may break into small arcs.

Auroral displays appear in many colors with pale green and pink the most common. However, different shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and violet have all been observed. The brightest auroral color is generally a green light emitted by excited oxygen atoms. A red diffuse glow results from another oxygen atom transition. A purple color results from a transition in a Nitrogen molecular ion. The mixture of the major green, red and purple emissions may combine to give aurora a general ‘whitish’ appearance. The color variations are a product of the altitude of the storm, and the density and composition of the ions at that altitude. The folding effect results from the electric field induced on either side of the auroral curtain by the electrons.

Generally, if an auroral band has an easily discernible lower border, this will be at around 60 to 70 miles in altitude. Auroral rays may extend above the lower border for hundreds of miles. If the lower border has a pinkish edge to it (resulting from an emission of molecular Nitrogen), the altitude may be around 50 to 60 miles. A diffuse red aurora occurs above 150 miles.