A diagram showing how the Sun moves through the sky on the Summer solstice.
Click on image for full size
The Summer Solstice
Let's pretend, for the moment, that you're the person standing on the
Earth in the picture to the left, living in Topeka, Kansas, around
40° N
latitude. The picture on the
left shows the view from the solar system (upper panel), and from on
the surface of the earth (lower panel). Notice that some of the same
features are labelled on each panel.
The upper panel shows that on the summer solstice (which occurs around
June 21), the northern half of the Earth is tilted towards the Sun.
Notice that the Sun is north of the equator. For you in Topeka, the
altitude of the Sun at noon is 73.5°, which
is pretty high in the sky. In fact, that is as high as the Sun ever
gets at that latitude. It has been getting higher and higher in the
sky since the winter solstice and through the vernal equinox. The bottom panel shows how
the Sun moves through the sky for someone standing on the ground in
Topeka.
So in general, the northern hemisphere is getting more direct
sunlight, which heats the Earth most efficiently, than the southern
hemisphere. This is summer for people in the northern hemisphere.
During the summer, the Sun is also above the horizon longer than it is
during the winter. The summer solstice is the longest day of the
year.
At this same time, the southern half of the Earth is tilted away from
the Sun. If you were living in Neuquen, Argentina (roughly -40° S
latitude) you would be bundled up for the winter.
How high the Sun gets in your sky, and how long it is above the
horizon during the day, depend not only on the season, but also on
your latitude.
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The
Summer 2010 issue of The Earth Scientist, available in our
online store, includes articles on rivers and snow, classroom planetariums, satellites and oceanography, hands-on astronomy, and global warming.
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