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Where? =
editThis needs some indication of where these 5m sq km of desert are. Antarctica is ~1.5, I think; Greenland might be 0.5, leaving 3 in... Alaska? Siberia? William M. Connolley (talk) 07:47, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
A large map of each pole indicating desert areas would be useful - as would a list of polar deserts sorted by size. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.71.43.37 (talk) 14:44, 3 March 2011 (UTC) ligma
Elaborate
editThe article does not seem to expand on the comparison between the polar desert and katabatic wind. There should be an elaboration about this distinction. In addition, explaining where the McMurdo Dry Valley is located in relation to the polar desert would be helpful. The climates are implied to be different and cause similar effects, but there is not an explanation as to why this is. PabuFerret (talk) 21:44, 21 February 2017 (UTC)
Except for extreme cold that itself makes life difficult, the McMurdo dry valley has landforms with some characteristics of non-polar deserts: intermittent streams and hypersaline lakes or ponds. Rainfall is obviously non-existent, and such snow as appears is blown in from surrounding ice sheets. Pbrower2a (talk) 11:35, 29 May 2019 (UTC)
I have asked for a citation. This sort of polar desert, although as cold as an ice-cap, is not ice-capped. Wind is ordinarily not a consideration in the Köppen climate classification, but here we are discussing a land-form and not a climate. The McMurdo Dry Valleys may be relics of a deglaciation during a warm spell. It would be unconventional to force a BS (steppe) or BW (desert) classification upon an area that qualifies as EF (ice cap) or ET (tundra) climate, as E takes precedence over B as a category.Pbrower2a (talk) 16:31, 10 August 2020 (UTC)
Minor expansion
editI added some general information to the introduction paragraph. I kept some of the old information although it was hard to tie into the new. Chris Woodford's Arctic Tundra and Polar Deserts (2011) is a great source of information for this topic. I wanted to add a 'polar climate' section. There should be more subheadings that include the specific geographic areas (i.e. Antarctica, Greenland, North America, etc.).
Wikianp (talk) 17:33, 26 February 2017 (UTC)Alex Porter