People have been left stunned by what Antarctica looks like at night and said it would drive them ‘insane’.
While winter means it is getting darker earlier for Brits – it is a very different story for communities living in certain areas of Antarctic nations.
Due to its location at the tip of the Southern Hemisphere the continent will not see a sustained period of darkness again until February 2025.
The phenomenon was demonstrated in a video posted to TikTok by vlogger Matty Jordan, who regularly posts content about living on the icy continent to his 835,000 followers on the social media platform.
Matty explains in his video that the absence of darkness takes place due to the presence of the so-called ‘midnight sun’.
This means that the sun remains visible at midnight during the summertime and just ‘circles around the sky’.
The countries and territories whose populations experience the midnight sun are limited to those crossed by polar circles: the Canadian Yukon, Nunavut, and Northwest Territories; the nations of Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark (Greenland), Russia; and Alaska in the US.
Matty’s video, which has been viewed more than 11million times on TikTok alone, had viewers in awe of the sight, as many took to the comments section with a mixture of wonder and disbelief.
One user simply commented: ‘This would drive me insane’.
Matty explains in his video that the absence of darkness takes place due to the presence of the so-called ‘midnight sun’.
Antarctica – due to its location at the tip of the Southern Hemisphere – will not see a sustained period of darkness again until February 2025
A second joked: ‘How did you get WiFi [to post the video] in Antarctica?’
Another quipped: ‘Are shops still open?’
A further user asked: ‘So how do you know when to sleep’ – to which a fellow responder said: ‘They have windows and blinds in Antarctica’.
Another Brit, seemingly dreading the upcoming winter in the UK, remarked: ‘At least you have sun, in the UK we have a few hours of grey sky and then it’s dark again’.
Another sceptical comment read: ‘Waking up late not knowing if it’s am or pm is diabolical’.
The midnight sun, also known as the polar day, is a natural phenomenon that occurs in Antarctica during the summer when the sun is visible at midnight.
During the polar summer, the sun stays above the horizon 24 hours a day – meaning there is no sunrise or sunset, but only constant daylight.
This is because – during the period from the beginning of November to February each year – the Earth’s axis is tilted towards the sun in Antarctica, causing the sun to remain above the horizon for 24 hours a day.
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