What is the largest desert on Earth by total area, including its ice-covered surface?

The Antarctic Desert is the largest desert on Earth by total area, including its ice-covered surface.

A desert is defined by very low precipitation, not by heat or the presence of sand. Antarctica receives little snowfall across much of its interior, so its frozen landscape meets the climatic definition of a desert. With an area of roughly 14 million square kilometers, it is larger than the Sahara and is the planet’s largest desert overall.

The Antarctic ice sheet stores about 90 percent of the world’s ice and roughly 60 percent of its fresh water. Snow that falls in the interior can remain compressed into ice for extremely long periods, while strong winds remove loose snow from exposed surfaces. Coastal Antarctica is generally less dry than the high interior.

The Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert, not the largest desert of any type. Antarctica is also the coldest, windiest, and highest continent, which helps explain its exceptionally dry conditions despite its vast ice cover.