Flag of Antarctica

Flag of the Antarctic Treaty.

Antarctica has no official flag as it is not a nation nor is it ruled by a single government or body. The Antarctic Treaty Organization adopted a flag in 2002 and is used as an unofficial symbol of the continent. Also, several unofficial designs have been proposed.

Proposed designs

Several sources have suggested various designs, including one by Graham Bartram and one by Whitney Smith.

Graham Bartram

The Graham Bartram design

The Graham Bartram design uses the flag of the United Nations as its model. A plain white map of the continent on a blue background symbolizes neutrality (Bartram was well aware of the overlapping territorial claims of the United Kingdom, Chile, and Argentina when he designed the flag). This flag was actually flown on the Antarctic continent for the first time in 2002, when Ted Kaye (editor of Raven, the scholarly journal of the North American Vexillological Association) took several full-size flags in the Bartram design on an Antarctic cruise. The bases of Brazil, Ukraine, and the UK all flew it from their flagpoles, making its raising "official". He presented a paper ("Flags Over Antarctica") which described the first flying of the Bartram design over Antarctica in Stockholm in 2003, at the 20th International Congress of Vexillology. It is perhaps the most popular flag for Antarctica, as seen by its prevalence on the Internet.

Whitney Smith

The Whitney Smith design

The Whitney Smith design uses the high-visibility color orange as its background (it is the international rescue color, it contrasts the best against snow, and to avoid any confusion, is unlike almost any other national flag on Earth). The emblem consists of several components. 'A' stands for Antarctica. The bottom segment of the globe represents Antarctica's "position" on Earth (according to the modern convention of drawing maps with north on top), while the two hands holding up the globe segment represent peaceful human use. The emblem is colored white to represent the snow and ice of Antarctica and is offset toward the hoist of the flag so as to maintain its integrity should the flag fray badly in the high winds prevalent upon the continent. However, there is no record of it ever being fabricated or used, despite being displayed in some atlases.

External links

• Antarctica — flag proposals