Why does the North Pole have no ice?

[speedfreak227]

i can see that the images aren't properly meeting at their edges but shouldn't they at least be white instead of blue?

sounds like a conspiracy to me.

http://www.v-j-enterprises.com/holearth.html

speedfreak227

[Stadsman]

LOL, very funny. What people think of these days

[araT]

Its not funny! its fact! The mole people live below the crust of the earth - they like scratching peoples eyes out to get to the gooey grey brain behind



T.

[speedfreak227]

ok, i don't honestly believe there's a hollow earth but i AM wondering why it shows as water rather than ice.

aren't you?

speedfreak227

[araT]

Well aren't you the party pooper

I have no idea why its like that, I guess the only way we will trully know is to go hassle the devs at the official forum

T.

[Lemenant]

this is also a question that i had myself. If somebody have a answer, even if it is already answered in another forum, thanks to put it here again for me.

[GEH4EVR]

I think there must be something going on because the south pole has ice so why dosent the north pole,

[Highlander739]

No ice? Simple..... The satellites used there must only register land masses, so the ice at the North Pole would not show up since it is on water. Look at Greenland/Alaska/etc and you see plenty of ice. The South Pole is on a land mass, so the ice shows. Over the sea area, it only shows the sea bed through the water.

That's also the reason why you can see terrain in the middle of the oceans, and not water, unless it is a hi-res photo of a certain area. Zoom in to around 2500km above Iceland and slowly scroll south. Then you can follow the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is where the tectonic plates are pulling apart, all the way down to the Antarctic continental shelf.

[araT]

Wow!! very nice spotting Highlander! thats amazing

T.

[speedfreak227]

i noticed the mid atlantic ridge a long time ago and it's really cool to see, but i don't understand something...... if the satelites show the floor of the ocean in some places, why not in all? there are obvious ocean waves near islands and just off the coasts.

is the satelite image seeing through the ice? wouldn't ice register just as solid as earth?

i don't understand satelite imaging technology so if someone can explain this better i'd really appreciate it.

speedfreak227

[Highlander739]

Originally Posted by speedfreak227

i noticed the mid atlantic ridge a long time ago and it's really cool to see, but i don't understand something...... if the satelites show the floor of the ocean in some places, why not in all? there are obvious ocean waves near islands and just off the coasts.

is the satelite image seeing through the ice? wouldn't ice register just as solid as earth?

i don't understand satelite imaging technology so if someone can explain this better i'd really appreciate it.

speedfreak227

Well, I ain't an expert either (just a humble electrician), but I would say you see more at the coastlines as the crust of the earth rises to form the land masses you would see more as there is far less water above the sea floor. Also, some areas will have a higher resolution than the centre of the Pacific, for example.

As far as "seeing through the ice" at the North Pole, I would guess that would be because ice is far less dense than land so the ice wouldn't register on sats that only pick up "solid" objects. As they slowly add more images, I'm sure we'll see some photos of the ice caps and hopefully some 'bergs floating around too.

I guess you have played with the National Geographic bits in Africa, but if not then have a look at the Megaflyover stuff. Some great waves on the African coast there

[arbitrary]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, it's not possible to determine water depth accurately from a satellite. I think what Google Earth displays in the oceans is not satellite imagery, but a representation of sonar data obtained from ships or submarines. This would also explain the lack of ice on the north pole. If it was really a satellite image, oceans would look like the high res pictures of water in lakes or coastal areas. Just compare to any "real" picture from orbit, you certainly can't see the continental shelves, ridges, and stuff like that.

[speedfreak227]

that seems like a reasonable explaination.

but i still like my hollow earth cover up theory as a close second.

speedfreak227

[SSSALVI]

Just see Arctic and Antarctic regions in MS Encarta World Atlas.

The snow cover at North pole is very less as compared to South pole and the solid ice is very near to polar regions only.

Coming to oceans .. GE is using only the bathymetric data for oceans and not the satellite imagery. That is why they are so 'bland'. Even the Microwave ( Radar ) imaging can't penetrate water for large depths.

Explaination by arbitrary is correct.

Shashi

[Professormp3]

Hey zoom in to the north pole looking straight down about 3150 miles high. Stop the zoom there and then move the picture gently around the screen by holding the left mouse button. You will see theres an artifical patch covering the pole starting from the 80 degree latitude line. Check out the attached file. Its the same thing at the south pole.