Breaking

How the Earth's tilt creates short, cold January days - The Conversation AU
Jan 10, 2022 1 min, 11 secs

As the Earth orbits the sun, it spins around an axis – picture a stick going through the Earth, from the North Pole to the South Pole.

As a result, light falls directly on its equator but strikes the North and South poles at angles.

When one of the poles points more toward the Sun than the other pole, that half of the planet gets more sunlight than the other half, and it’s summer in that hemisphere.

When that pole tilts away from the Sun, that half of the Earth gets less sunlight and it’s winter there.

At the equator, which gets consistent direct sunlight, there’s very little change in day length or temperature year-round.

The farther north you live, the longer it takes for the amount and intensity of daylight to start significantly increasing in midwinter, since your location is tilting away from the Sun.

Seattle is downwind from an ocean, which is why it is many degrees warmer than Boston in the winter even though it’s farther north than Boston.

The rate of change in daylight is slowest at the solstices – December in winter, June in summer – and fastest at the equinoxes, in mid-March and mid-September.

This change occurs as the area on Earth receiving direct sunlight swings from 23.5 N latitude – about as far north of the equator as Miami – to 23.5 S latitude, about as far south of the equator as Asunción, Paraguay.

RECENT NEWS

SUBSCRIBE

Get monthly updates and free resources.

CONNECT WITH US

© Copyright 2024 365NEWSX - All RIGHTS RESERVED