Ice cap climate
![Solar radiation has a lower intensity in polar regions because it travels a longer distance through the atmosphere, and is also spread across a larger surface area due to its oblique angle of approach.[1]](/Images/godic/202501/19/Oblique_rays_04_Pengo.svg4234.png")
![A polar bear with cub](/Images/godic/202501/19/Ursus_maritimus_mother_with_cub4235.jpg")
An ice cap climate is a polar climate where the temperature never or almost never exceeds 0 °C (32 °F). The climate covers areas in or near the polar regions, such as Antarctica and Greenland, as well as the highest mountaintops. Such areas are covered by a permanent layer of ice and have no vegetation, but they may have animal life, that usually feeds from the oceans. Ice cap climates are inhospitable to human life. Antarctica, the coldest continent on Earth, sustains no permanent human residents.