Thinking in terms of heat absorption, wouldn’t black or darker colours be more appropriate, or at those temperatures would such an effect be too minimal to even consider?
Is it therefore for visibility, or is it just the colour of the uniform of the researchers/scientists?
Many thanks! <3
In: 809
There’s a guy wearing a black jacket and navy blue pants in [this picture](https://imgur.com/jxZBzq6.jpg).
Can you spot him?
Orange, red and yellow give you the best chance to be seen by a helicopter if a polar bear drags you into the woods.
In the arctic tundra dark colours like blacks or browns could be mistaken from a distance for a rock if lying on ground in need of assistance but orange and reds arent seen in that area therefore a red/orange mound on the ground is likely to be a person.
You don’t wanna get lost in a whiteout. Even with the best gear, long term survival odds are low.
Antarctic operative here – Yes, it’s for visibility as several other people have said.
You mention heat absorption; at extremely high (or low) latitudes, there’s actually not a lot of sun. The station I go to barely gets above +2°C in the Austral summer (i.e. January). In the winter it’s -40°C. We do get blue sky days, but there’s almost no heat to absorb. [This page](https://pages.mtu.edu/~raman/SilverI/MiTEP_ESI-2/Solar_energy_and_latitude.html) has a pretty good diagram explaining how the sun’s light and heat is spread over such a large area at the poles.
A lot of science over the years has gone into the construction and ways to wear polar clothing, with new pieces trialled every few years from different manufacturers. The various polar institutes around the world really know what works and what doesn’t.
(Edit: Corrected high vs low latitudes)
All the color answers are correct but miss the practical answer. Most people who go to the Antarctic are going as part of a government program.
That government program awards contracts for logistics operations upkeep etc.
The researchers contractors etc are issued gear for the season (you can wear your own but there are minimum required load outs you have to deploy with similar to a military seabag)
For the US Antarctic program the gear is Canada Goose and depending on where you deploy you’ll get Big Red (the huge puffy parka), (Mcmurdo, field camps etc) its made to live and work in. Unless you’re out at a field camp it really is overkill about 90% of the time. People going to the pole get a different Canada Goose green parka. Finally most of the contractors also have a Carhartt canvas jacket for everyday work.
Source: 3 summers and 2 winters on ice
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