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vertical circle

(Encyclopedia)vertical circle, in astronomy, the great circle on the celestial sphere that passes from the observer's zenith through a given celestial body. In the altazimuth coordinate system the altitude of a bod...

Arctic North Slope

(Encyclopedia)Arctic North Slope or Arctic Slope, Alaska: see Alaska North Slope. ...

Arctic Red River

(Encyclopedia)Arctic Red River, c.310 mi (500 km) long, rising in the Mackenzie Mts. of W Northwest Territories, Canada, and flowing generally NW to the Mackenzie River. At its mouth are a post of the Royal Canadia...

tundra

(Encyclopedia)tundra tŭnˈdrə [key], treeless plains of N North America and N Eurasia, lying principally along the Arctic Circle, on the coasts and islands of the Arctic Ocean, and to the north of the coniferous ...

Weyprecht, Karl

(Encyclopedia)Weyprecht, Karl kärl vīˈprĕkht [key], 1838–81, German arctic explorer. With Julius von Payer he made a voyage to Novaya Zemlya in 1871. Weyprecht and Payer were leaders of an Austrian expedition...

midnight sun

(Encyclopedia)midnight sun, phenomenon in which the sun remains visible in the sky continuously for 24 hr or longer, occurring only in the polar regions. The midnight sun is due to the fact that the plane of the ea...

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur

(Encyclopedia)Stefansson, Vilhjalmur vĭlˈhyoulmər stĕfˈənsən [key], 1879–1962, Arctic explorer, b. Canada, of Icelandic parents, educated at the Univ. of North Dakota, the State Univ. of Iowa, and Harvard....

Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve

(Encyclopedia)Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, N Alaska. Located N of the Arctic Circle, the park (7,523,898 acres/3,046,113 hectares) and adjacent preserve (948,629 acres/384,060 hectares) make up t...

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