and Barbuda Defense Force, Royal Antigua and Barbuda
Police Force (including the Coast Guard)
Defense expenditures:
exchange rate conversion - $1.4 million, 1% of GDP (FY90/91)

@Arctic Ocean, Geography

Location:
body of water mostly north of the Arctic Circle
Map references:
Arctic Region, Asia, North America, Standard Time Zones of the World
Area:
total area:
14.056 million sq km
comparative area:
slightly more than 1.5 times the size of the US; smallest of the
world's four oceans (after Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Indian
Ocean)
note:
includes Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, East
Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara Sea,
Laptev Sea, Northwest Passage, and other tributary water bodies
Coastline:
45,389 km
International disputes:
some maritime disputes (see littoral states); Svalbard is the focus of
a maritime boundary dispute between Norway and Russia
Climate:
polar climate characterized by persistent cold and relatively narrow
annual temperature ranges; winters characterized by continuous
darkness, cold and stable weather conditions, and clear skies; summers
characterized by continuous daylight, damp and foggy weather, and weak
cyclones with rain or snow
Terrain:
central surface covered by a perennial drifting polar icepack that
averages about 3 meters in thickness, although pressure ridges may be
three times that size; clockwise drift pattern in the Beaufort Gyral
Stream, but nearly straight line movement from the New Siberian
Islands (Russia) to Denmark Strait (between Greenland and Iceland);
the ice pack is surrounded by open seas during the summer, but more
than doubles in size during the winter and extends to the encircling
land masses; the ocean floor is about 50% continental shelf (highest
percentage of any ocean) with the remainder a central basin
interrupted by three submarine ridges (Alpha Cordillera, Nansen
Cordillera, and Lomonsov Ridge); maximum depth is 4,665 meters in the
Fram Basin
Natural resources:
sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil
and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales)
Environment:
current issues:
endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile
ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or
damage
natural hazards:
ice islands occasionally break away from northern Ellesme