The amount of heat energy received at any location on the globe is a direct effect of Sun angle on climate. The angle of sunlight strikes the Earth in various locations, at different times of day, causing different weather patterns around the Earth which contributes to our climate. As the Earth orbits around the Sun, these weather patterns contribute to winter, spring, summer and fall. You might say, WAIT? I thought seasons were because the Earth is orbiting around the Sun? No, not true. We have seasons because the Earth is tilted and the angle of the Sun's rays hit the Earth at different angles....OH! You've heard this before! Then you understand the seasons are caused as the Earth, tilted on its axis, travels in a loop around the Sun each year. Summer happens in the hemisphere tilted towards the Sun, and winter happens in the hemisphere tilted away from the Sun. You might ask, well, how do the seasons work if the Earth is rotating? The seasons are, of course, reversed for the southern hemisphere. The winter and summer solstices mark the two dates during the year on which the Earth's position in its orbit is such that its axis of rotation is most tilted toward or away from the Sun. The Earth continues to rotate 24-7, everyday, every week, every month, every year....so rotation isn't the real reason for the seasons...its the tilt, again, and the angle of the Sun's rays. As the Earth travels around the Sun over the course of a year and the tilt of its axis points your hemisphere toward or away from the Sun, you experience the changing of the seasons. See? It's always about the tilt and angle of the Sun's rays! If the Earth weren't tilted on its axis, there would be no seasons. And humanity would suffer. How would we suffer? Well...take away the Earth's axial slant, and the place might become a lot less inviting. With a tilt of less than five degrees or so, the Earth's equator would bear the full brunt of a sun's radiance. The polar regions would also receive far less sunlight than they do. The result: extreme temperatures would be at the poles and the equator. The equator would be extremely hot while the poles would be completely frozen. Bands of populations in temperate, mid-latitude zones could still live. The worst-case scenario, would be that the entire atmosphere of a non-tilted Earth would disappear. Gases might evaporate into space around the planet's blazing middle and freeze to the ground in the bleak north and south. Some life as we know it would become completely extinct. The real reason for the seasons? It's all in the tilt and the angle of the Sun's rays. But you already knew that didn't you....
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Mrs. TaylorI love science! Everything about the world is interesting and never boring. I love to study plants, animals, insects, and people. My favorite subjects are my students who are the most unique organisms on the planet! Categories |