Seasons, Equinoxes and Solstices

1. Seasons, Equinoxes and Solstices By: Bryan

2. What is Seasons? • Seasons are parts of the year which is divided by the weather, temperature and hours of daylight. In the northern and southern hemisphere, they have 4 seasons which are Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring while the equator area has only 2 seasons which are dry and wet season.

3. Winter • Winter is when the earth tilts away from the sun. The temperature would be really cold or freezing since the Earth position is pretty far (average temperature 4.4 degree Celsius) and snow might come in some places. It’s the coldest of all four seasons. When this season occur, the north or south pole will not get any sunlight so it will be completely dark. This season starts on December 21st and ends on March 21st for Northern Hemisphere. For the Southern hemisphere, this season starts on June 21st and ends on September 22nd.

4. Summer • Summer is when the Earth position is tilted toward the sun. Even though the earth’s position right in this season is pretty far, it’s still hot because of it’s tilt. It’s the hottest season. It’s when people go on vacation or play at the beach and some have 3 months holiday. This season starts on about June 21st and ends on September 21st for the Northern parts. For the Southern parts, this season starts on December 21st and ends on March 21st.

5. Spring • Spring is when the earth is going moving toward the sun and starting to get hotter because the next season would be summer. It’s when flowers blossom and the weather is warm which is about 11.1 degree Celsius. Spring is when people start to do their activities back from the long cold winter. For the Northern hemisphere, this season starts on March 21st and ends on June 21st. While the southern hemisphere starts this season on September 21st and ends on December 21st.

6. Autumn/Fall • Autumn is when the earth is in the process of moving away from the sun or going to Winter Season. The temperature starts to get cooler which is approximately 22.2 degree Celsius. The days start to get shorter and nights gets longer. Autumn is when tree leafs turn to red and yellow. It is when animals gets ready for hibernation through winter. It starts on around September 22nd and ends on December 21st (Northern). Start on March 21st and ends on June 21st (Southern).

7. What is Equinoxes? • Equinoxes is when the North and South pole are exactly parallel to the motion of earth. The northern and southern hemisphere both gets equal sunlight. There are two types of equinoxes, vernal and autumnal equinoxes.

8. What’s a Vernal Equinoxes? • Vernal equinoxes happen on March 21st for the Northern hemisphere and September 21st for the Southern hemisphere during Spring’s first day of the season. The sun appears to move northwards because of the tilt of the earth. It’s when the day and night are equal and the temperature is warm.

9. What’s Autumnal Equinoxes? • Autumnal Equinoxes happen on September 22nd for the Northern hemisphere and March 21st for the Southern hemisphere during the first day of Autumn season. This happens when the sun appears to cross southwards. The day and night would appear equally.

10. What are Solstices? • Solstices happen when the sun is farthest from the equator. Even though the position of the earth is pretty far when Solstices happen, there’s a tilt which cause some areas to be hot. There are 2 types of Solstices which are Winter Solstice and Summer Solstice.

11. What is Winter Solstices? • Winter Solstice happens on the first day of winter which is about December 21st for the northern hemisphere and June 21st for the southern parts. It’s when the night is longer than the day. This happens when the earth’s position is far from the sun and occurs once to each hemisphere a year. The earth is most tilted away from the sun which cause to appear below when viewed from the earth.

12. What is Summer Solstices? • Summer Solstice happen on the first day of summer which is about June 21st for the northern hemisphere or December 21st for the southern hemisphere. It’s day are longer than night. Solstices only happen once to each hemisphere a year because the earth keeps on revolving. The earth is mostly tilted toward the sun which cause the sun’s position above when viewed from earth.

13. What causes them to happen? • These natural phenomenon happen because of the earth revolution/orbit around the sun and the tilt of the earth which is 23.5 degree. The revolution and tilt causes different season between the northern and southern hemisphere. So when the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun it’s summer, while the southern hemisphere is experiencing the opposite season which is winter because it’s tilted away from the sun. By having the tilt, the earth’s hemispheres gets different amount of sunlight.

14. How does the seasons work? The Diagram When the northern is starting to move closer to the sun, and the southern is tilting away, the northern gets spring while the southern gets autumn. The vernal and autumnal equinox will occur on the first day. March 21st So during this time, the northern hemisphere is having summer season while the southern is having a cold winter. In this position the northern is having summer solstice and the southern is having winter solstice. June 21st December 21st When the earth is pretty far from the sun, the northern gets winter while the southern get summer. The first day they will get winter and summer solstices. In this position the northern is having autumn season and autumnal equinox on this position while the southern hemisphere is having spring season and vernal equinox. The days and nights are equal because both hemisphere gets equal sunlight. September 21st

15. Winter + - • Winter Sports like Hockey, Ice skating, • Animals hibernate. • Snow fall and kids could do activities outside with snow. • Celebrations are held like Christmas for the Christians and Hanukah for the Jews. • Orange and grapes could grow well. • The temperature would be freezing cold. • Plants die. • Animals could die of the freezing temperature if they can’t find any warm shelter. • Homeless people could die of coldness. • Less sports are held.

16. Spring + - • People could finally feel the warm weather after the freezing winter. • Animals end their hibernation. • Flowers and trees grow back. • It’s fruits and veggies grow well and healthy to be consumed by both people and animals. • Food festivals are held since some call it the season of harvest. • Rains a lot. • The temperature slowly gets hotter and hotter. • Aggressive bugs such as bees comes out of their nest and might attack people. • Diseases like chicken pox, measles and small pox could spread because some people are allergic to flowers and some can’t stand the smell of it. • Some US cities gets tornadoes

17. Summer + - • People gets summer holiday. • Have some vacations with their family and get closer to each other. • Most people chose to swim or go to the beach to enjoy the hot temperature. • It’s the season when Mangos grow more. • Roads are mostly open since there are no marsh and mud. • The temperature would be really hot and people get tired easily. • Some plants dries up. • Animals might die because of thirst or the hotness. • People could get sunburn because of the heat it gets. • Heat waves and other hot disasters may occur and make destructions to the buildings and kill people as well. • Because of the hot temperature, fire may occur on forest which cause animals or some people to die. • More water will evaporate which effects the plants to die and there will be less water.

18. Autumn + - • Animals starts to collect food and prepare for winter season. • Some animals migrate to a warmer place before the winter comes. • Fruits and veggies could grow well. • Plants could grow well because of the normal temperature and get lots of water from the rain. • We could spend time indoor with our family while it’s raining outside. • Mostly rains. • The leafs which falls from trees cause the roads to be dirty because it’s all mixed up with dirt and water. • Mostly can do activities indoor which makes some people feel bored. • Might have flood.

19. Summer Solstices + - • Day animals gets more time to eat and collect food. • People will get more solar energy • More time to do activities during the day. • Some plants which needs lots of sunlight could grow well. • Night life animals won’t get lots of time to do their activities. Some are forced to do it during the day. • Some plants dries up because of too much heat. • The weather will be really hot and people get tired easily. • Less time to rest or enjoy the night time.

20. Winter Solstices + - • More time to rest. • Night animals gets lots of time to hunt food. • We could enjoy the night view and the cold temperature. • Snow starts to fall. • Animal starts to migrate to warmer places. • Less time to do their daily activities during the day. So they need to work harder during the day. • Day animals gets less time to find food. • Plants starts to die because of the cold temperature.

21. Autumnal Equinox + - • Equal day and night. • Enough rest and enough time to do daily activities which makes us balance in time management. • Fruits and plants will grow back from the hot Summer Season. • It’s the end of freezing cold temperatures. • Rains a lot during the day. • Plants get time to absorb CO2 and to produce O2 (Equal time) • It’s day starts to rain a lot which means we can’t go outdoor. • The temperature starts to get hotter slowly since the earth is tilting toward the sun.

22. Vernal Equinox + - • People could enjoy the warm temperature after the cold winter. • Good sun position. • People celebrate the spring season. Chinese celebrates Chinese new year/ spring festival. • Equal day and night. Which means equal time to rest and do activities. • Animals could finally end their hibernation. • Rains a lot which means the time to do activities are reduced. • No more Winter Sports and snow will melt.