Whether you burn a bush, light a candle, pop a cork, or watch football December 21st marks the winter solstice and we're told the beginning of winter. But what is the solstice? As the earth make's it annual orbit around the sun we experience a lengthening and shortening of daylight hours and fluctuation in mean temperature. This is all due to the fact that the earth is tipped on it's axis. This axial tilt of 23.5 degrees gives us seasons in the form of shifting temperatures and day light hours. After 365.25 spins the earth has traveled the enormous circle around the sun and and on the Winter Solstice the tilt of the axis is pointing as far from the sun as it will all year, giving the northern hemisphere less daylight and colder air temperatures (winter) and opposing (summer) for the Southern Hemisphere.
The Winter Solstice also marks an interesting moment for the earth. On this day the latitude of 23.5 South is the closest point on the earth to the sun. As the sun is so much larger than the earth we must think of its light as coming towards the earth like a bright yellow wall. It crashes over the earth illuminating 50% of the earth's surface at any given moment. The tilt of the earth makes it so the bulging, belly of the globe juts out towards the sun. On the winter solstice the point on the globe closest to the sun is latitude 23.5 degrees South better known as the Tropic of Capricorn.
For all our friends in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, French Polynesia, Tonga, Fiji, Cook Islands, Caledonia, Sea Islands Territory, Australia, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia when the clock strikes high noon in their country, for a few moments they will be the closets people to the sun. For us schmoes in the Northern Hemisphere, we are tipping away from the sun at an angle of 23.5 degrees and so experiencing less daylight, and cooler temperatures.
No comments:
Post a Comment