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There is no official flag of Antarctica. Antarctica is not a nation and is not ruled by a single government or body, therefore no flag has been adopted for it. The Antarctic Treaty Organization has no flag, either.

Proposed designs

There have appeared in various sources several proposed designs, including one by Graham Bartram and one by Whitney Smith.

Graham Bartram

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 has actually been flown on the Antarctic continent as recently as 2002, when Ted Kaye (editor of Raven, the scholarly journal of the North American Vexillological Association) took several full-size copies of the flag 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 on 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 in its abundancy on the Internet.

Whitney Smith

The Whitney Smith design uses the high-visibility colour orange as its background (it is the international rescue colour, 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 repesents 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, let alone used in Antarctica. It has been shown in some flag books and atlases, however.

Territorial flags

The nations of the Antarctic Treaty use their own national flags at their respective Antarctic research bases. Some nations however have their own flags for their Antarctic possessions.

British Antarctic Territory

The flag of the British Antarctic Territory is a white version of the British Blue Ensign defaced by the Coat of Arms of the Territory.

Other British colonies in the Antarctic region are the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which have their own flags.

French Southern and Antarctic Territories

The flag of the French Southern and Antarctic Territories, which includes the French territorial claim, has the French flag in the canton together with the Commissioner's arms.

Tierra del Fuego

The Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego includes the Argentine claim on Antarctica (25 degrees W to 74 degrees W). The flag was adopted in 1999 as the result of a competition, and shows an Antarctic bird and the Southern Cross.

Magallanes Region

The Antártica Chilena Province in the Magallanes Region includes the Chilean claim on the continent (53 degrees W to 90 degrees W). Puerto Williams is the capital of this province, which also includes the islands south of Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn. The Magallanes Region's flag also has the Southern Cross appearing over a mountain range.

Ross Dependency

Ross Dependency (New Zealand's territorial claim in Antarctica) uses the New Zealand flag, but vexillologist James Dignan's design concept was seen flying there at one time. The New Zealand flag is the basis for his design, though with an 'Ice Blue' background representing the Ross Sea, and the white horizontal bar at the bottom of the flag repesenting the Ross Ice Shelf.

External links

• Antarctica — flag proposals

• Antarctica
• White Ensigns
• International flags