Solstices and equinoxes
In 2022, the December solstice (winter for the Northern Hemisphere, summer season for the Southern Hemisphere) will happen at 21:48 UTC at the moment.
This solstice marks the solar’s southernmost level in our sky.
And the truth that Earth’s Northern and Southern Hemispheres have their summers and winters at reverse occasions of 12 months gives a clue to the explanation for Earth’s seasons. That motive is Earth’s 23 1/2-degree tilt on its axis. It’s pure to assume our world’s seasons end result from our altering distance from the solar. However we’re nearer to the solar in northern winter, and farther from the solar in northern summer season. So, it’s not Earth’s distance from the solar that causes the seasons to vary. As an alternative, on our tilted world, the angle of daylight placing your location shifts in a yearly cycle, as we journey across the solar.
The pictures and video on this web page – from NASA – present Earth’s solstices and equinoxes from house. They may also help you visualize why our seasons unfold as they do, constantly, all through annually.
All you need to know: June solstice 2023.
Viewing the solstices and equinoxes from house
EUMETSAT‘s Meteosat-9 (a climate satellite tv for pc) captured the 4 views above of Earth from geosynchronous orbit in 2010 and 2011. A satellite tv for pc in geosynchronous orbit stays over the identical level on Earth on a regular basis. And the pictures above present how daylight fell on the Earth on December 21, 2010 (higher left), March 20, 2011 (higher proper), June 21, 2011 (decrease left), and September 20, 2011 (decrease proper). Additionally, every picture was taken at 6:12 a.m. native time.
Round 6 a.m. native time every day, the solar, Earth, and any geosynchronous satellite tv for pc kind a proper angle. Thus, affording straight-down view of Earth’s terminator line, that’s, the road between our world’s day and evening sides. The form of this line between evening and day varies with the seasons. And leads to completely different lengths of days and differing quantities of warming sunshine.
Whereas the road is definitely a curve as a result of the Earth is spherical, satellite tv for pc pictures present it in two dimensions solely.
On March 20 and September 20, the terminator is a straight north-south line, and the solar sits immediately above the equator. Then on December 21, the solar resides immediately over the Tropic of Capricorn when seen from the bottom, and daylight spreads over extra of the Southern Hemisphere. Subsequent on June 21, the solar sits above the Tropic of Cancer, spreading extra daylight within the north.
Backside line: A video from NASA reveals how daylight falls on Earth’s floor throughout the solstices and equinoxes, as seen by the climate satellite tv for pc Meteosat-9 in 2010 and 2011.
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