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Antarctic Circle Map

The southern polar circle crosses no country at all, only ice, ocean and the edge of a continent with no permanent population.

How to use it

  1. Read today's latitude and the two solstice dates in the facts.
  2. Check the Today panel: it says whether the sun sets at the circle today, from the solar declination.
  3. Follow the red line on the map; Antarctica is shaded, and the white markers are research stations near the line.
  4. Type a place and press Find nearest point for the distance to the circle; from most of the world it is a long way.

How it works

The circle sits at 90° minus the Earth's axial tilt, south of the Equator. The page computes today's mean obliquity as 23.439291 - 0.0130042 T degrees (T in Julian centuries since 2000), draws the parallel at about 66.5636° S, and notes that it moves south by roughly 49 feet (15 m) a year.

The Today panel is the mirror of the Arctic one: the sun's declination from a low-precision solar position, the sun's altitude at local midnight and noon on the circle, and a count of midnight-sun nights around the December solstice including the 0.83° of refraction and solar width. Station positions are from their published coordinates and are rounded to the nearest kilometre. Antarctica's outline is Natural Earth data served from this site.

Questions

Which countries does the Antarctic Circle pass through?
None. The only land inside it is Antarctica, which no country owns. Seven countries claim sectors of the continent, but the Antarctic Treaty freezes those claims and the line does not cross any sovereign territory.
Does anyone live on the Antarctic Circle?
Only station staff. Russia's Mirny station sits about a mile from the line, France's Dumont d'Urville is just inside it, and Australia's Casey is just outside. The closest towns are in Chile and Argentina, more than 1,200 miles (2,000 km) away.
When is the midnight sun at the Antarctic Circle?
Around the December solstice, the southern summer. On the solstice itself the sun's centre touches the horizon at midnight; with refraction the sun stays visible at midnight for about a month. Around the June solstice the sun barely rises at noon.

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