Spring is almost here, at least officially.
The equinox of spring Thursday arrives and marks the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere and autumn in the southern hemisphere. In Ecuador, the sun will be directly on people’s head at noon. The equinoxes are the only time when the north and south pole are illuminated at the same time by sunlight.
These events have been marked and celebrated worldwide for centuries. For example, Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, is based on the spring equinox. And on the Mayan site of Chichen Itzá in Mexico, people gather during the equinox to observe how the sun creates a shadow pattern that resembles a snake descending by a construction called El Castillo.
But what happens in heaven? This is what you have to know about how we divide the year using the orbit of the Earth.
What is equinox?
The Land revolves around Sun At an angle.
During most of the year, the Earth’s axis is inclined towards the sun or away from it. That means that heat and sunlight fall unequally in the north and south halves of the planet.
During the equinox, the axis of the Earth and its orbit are aligned in such a way that both hemispheres receive an equal amount of sunlight.
The equinox word comes from two Latin words that mean the same and night. This is because, in the equinox, the day and night last almost the same amount of timealthough either of the two may have an extra minutes, depending on the part of the planet where we are.
The spring equinox of the northern hemisphere, also called vernal, can fall between March 19 and 21, depending on the year. Autumn equinox can fall between September 21 and 24.
What is solstice?
The solstices mark the moments of the year when the Earth is in its most extreme inclination towards or moving away from the sun. This means that hemispheres receive very different amounts of sunlight, and the days and nights are the most unequal. During the summer solstice of the northern hemisphere, the upper half of the earth is inclined towards the sun, creating the longest day and the shortest night of the year. This solstice falls between June 20 and 22.
Meanwhile, in the winter solstice, the northern hemisphere is inclined away from the sun, which takes the shortest night and the longest night of the year. The winter solstice falls between December 20 and 23.
What is the difference between weather and astronomical stations?
These are just two different ways of dividing the year.
While astronomical stations depend on how the Earth moves around the Sun, the weather stations are defined by the climate. These divide the year into three -month stations, based on annual temperature cycles. According to that calendar, spring begins on March 1, summer on June 1, autumn on September 1 and winter on December 1.