CAS ES 351 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Winter Solstice, Ellipse, Axial Tilt

• School: Boston University
• Department: Earth Sciences
• Course: CAS ES 351
• Professor: Andrew Kurtz

Document Summary

All throughout time, earth"s tilt remains the same. Its earth"s changing position in space that give us variations in solar radiation. So earths position in respect to the sun is what changes. Solstices: the longest and shortest day of the year, the seasonal differences that come from earth"s orbit around the sun over a year. Equinox: means equal length of day and night. This happens around march and september in the middle of the extremes of the winter and summer solstices. Eccentricity: earth"s orbit is not perfectly circular and this happens because of the gravitational pull of other planets as earth moves through space. Perihelion: earth is closest to the sun in its orbit. This happens around jan. 1 so there"s a slightly stronger winter radiation in the northern hemisphere and summer radiation in the southern. The effect of earths elliptical orbit has little effect on seasons.