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Therefore, radiation strikes similar latitudes at the same angle in both hemispheres. This situation reaches a maximum on June 21.ĪUTUMN: (Image of the tilt of the earth in the autumn) In this configuration the earth is not tilted with respect to the sun’s rays (The earth in this picture is actually tilted towards you as indicated by the fact that you can see the North Pole – green dot). This means that there is more radiation per unity area to be absorbed. Hemisphere (as indicated by the red line). As a result, the radiation is distributed over an area which is less in the N. Hemisphere is tilted towards the sun, the sun’s rays strike the earth at a steeper angle compared to a similar latitude in the S. SUMMER: (Image of the tilt of the earth in the summer) When the N. Hemisphere we call it spring, while in the S. Since this situation occurs after winter in N. The result is that the radiation per unity area is the same in both hemispheres. SPRING: (Image of the tilt of the earth in the spring) In this configuration, the earth is not tilted with respect to the sun’s rays (The earth in this picture is actually tilted towards you as indicated by the fact that you can see the North Pole – green dot). Recall that irradiance is in units of $W/m^2$, so a larger denominator means a smaller value of irradiance, right?Įxplore the concept of the cosine projection effect in the following experiment.Ĭlick on the name of each season in the nimation above to see more information and read the corresponding season descriptions below. When you tilt a surface away from a beam of light, you spread the same density of light across a larger area. The tilt of the surface of the Earth causes light to be spread across a greater area of land, called the cosine projection effect. The tilt of the Earth's axis is important, in that it governs the warming strength of the sun's energy. The axis of rotation of the Earth is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees away from vertical, perpendicular to the plane of our planet's orbit around the sun. Wild fact: a time zone change of one hour is really just 15 degrees of separation between standard meridians. When Earth rotates such that the beam of the sun shifts $+1^\circ$ of longitude from East to West: it takes 4 minutes of time. The implications are that the unit of one hour is equivalent to the rotation of Earth 15 degrees.
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This provides the most direct solar radiation of the year, resulting in more heating of the Earth’s surface and, therefore, warmer temperatures.As we have seen in our reading, the Earth rotates with a roughly constant speed, so that every hour the direct beam (a ray pointing from the surface of the sun to a spot on Earth) will traverse across a single standard meridian (standard meridians are spaced $15^\circ$ apart). local time due to daylight saving time) on the summer solstice. The sun reaches its highest and northernmost point in the sky at solar noon (around 1 p.m. In the summer, the sun rises in the northeastern sky and sets in the northwestern sky, providing long days and short nights. Therefore, everywhere on Earth experiences an equal 12 hours of daylight and darkness because the sun rises due east and sets due west.
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On the vernal equinox in March and the autumnal equinox in September, the equator (0 degrees latitude) is aligned directly with the sun. LA NIÑA IS OVER AND EL NIÑO COULD BE ON THE WAY, FORECASTERS SAY On June's summer solstice, the most direct rays of sunlight are in alignment with the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees north latitude). On the winter solstice in December, the sun's most direct rays are positioned over the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5 degrees south latitude).
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