Does Earth Have Seasons
1) Why does the Earth have seasons? Describe the relationship of the Earth and Sun in each of our four seasons.
Contrary to what most people believe, seasons on Earth are not caused by the distance of our planet in relation to the Sun. This is a common misconception due to the Earth’s elliptical orbit around the Sun, which means there are times that the Earth is closer to the Sun, and times when it is farther away. If the Earth’s proximity to the Sun was the cause of our seasons, then they would be opposite of what they are. In the Northern Hemisphere, the part of the year when the Earth is closer to the Sun, we are in winter. But the part of the year that it is farther away, we are in summer. How is this possible? The reason that seasons …show more content…
Light from the Sun looks white, but it is actually composed of every color of the rainbow. When white light shines through a prism, the light is separated into all of its colors. Light energy travels in waves, much like energy travels through the ocean. Some light travels as short and choppy waves, whereas other light travels in long and lazy waves. In the light spectrum, blue waves are much shorter than red waves. Light travels in a straight line unless something gets in the way and does one of three things: reflect it, bend it, or scatter it. As the white light from the Sun reaches our atmosphere, it gets scattered by all of the gases and particles in the air. Since blue waves are shorter and smaller than other colors, they get scattered in all directions by the tiny molecules of air in the atmosphere. This scattering of blue waves is why we see a blue sky most of the time. As we look closer to the horizon, the sky fades to lighter blue or white. This is because those light waves have been scattered and re-scattered numerous times in all directions, which dilutes the amount of blue light waves we see. The surface of the Earth has also scattered and reflected the light waves, mixing the colors back together creating more white light instead of blue. As the Sun sets and gets lower in the sky, the light waves from it have to pass through more of the atmosphere to reach our eyes. This means that even more …show more content…
The ENSO cycle is fluctuations in temperature between the ocean and atmosphere in the Equatorial Pacific off the west coast of South America. La Niña is the cold phase of ENSO and El Niño is the warm phase of ENSO. These changes from normal surface temperatures can have huge implications in the ocean environment as well as on global weather and climate. El Niño and La Niña usually last for several months, but some occurrences have been known to last for a year or more. While the periods of ENSO are very irregular, El Niño and La Niña events occur roughly every two to five years. Usually, El Niño occurs more often than La Niña. Typically, El Niño weather changes occur over North America during the early winter months. It usually creates warmer than average temperatures over the western and northern US states and western Canada. In the Gulf Coast region of the US, it can create wetter than average conditions that can cause flooding, and can actually cause less moisture in the Ohio Valley and the Pacific Northwest regions of the US. On the opposite end of the spectrum, La Niña occurrences cause periods of cooler sea surface temperatures across the Equatorial Pacific off the coast of South America. The effects of La Niña are opposite those of El Niño, and can bring distinctive changes to the affected areas climate. During a La Niña year, winter temperatures are warmer
Contrary to what most people believe, seasons on Earth are not caused by the distance of our planet in relation to the Sun. This is a common misconception due to the Earth’s elliptical orbit around the Sun, which means there are times that the Earth is closer to the Sun, and times when it is farther away. If the Earth’s proximity to the Sun was the cause of our seasons, then they would be opposite of what they are. In the Northern Hemisphere, the part of the year when the Earth is closer to the Sun, we are in winter. But the part of the year that it is farther away, we are in summer. How is this possible? The reason that seasons …show more content…
Light from the Sun looks white, but it is actually composed of every color of the rainbow. When white light shines through a prism, the light is separated into all of its colors. Light energy travels in waves, much like energy travels through the ocean. Some light travels as short and choppy waves, whereas other light travels in long and lazy waves. In the light spectrum, blue waves are much shorter than red waves. Light travels in a straight line unless something gets in the way and does one of three things: reflect it, bend it, or scatter it. As the white light from the Sun reaches our atmosphere, it gets scattered by all of the gases and particles in the air. Since blue waves are shorter and smaller than other colors, they get scattered in all directions by the tiny molecules of air in the atmosphere. This scattering of blue waves is why we see a blue sky most of the time. As we look closer to the horizon, the sky fades to lighter blue or white. This is because those light waves have been scattered and re-scattered numerous times in all directions, which dilutes the amount of blue light waves we see. The surface of the Earth has also scattered and reflected the light waves, mixing the colors back together creating more white light instead of blue. As the Sun sets and gets lower in the sky, the light waves from it have to pass through more of the atmosphere to reach our eyes. This means that even more …show more content…
The ENSO cycle is fluctuations in temperature between the ocean and atmosphere in the Equatorial Pacific off the west coast of South America. La Niña is the cold phase of ENSO and El Niño is the warm phase of ENSO. These changes from normal surface temperatures can have huge implications in the ocean environment as well as on global weather and climate. El Niño and La Niña usually last for several months, but some occurrences have been known to last for a year or more. While the periods of ENSO are very irregular, El Niño and La Niña events occur roughly every two to five years. Usually, El Niño occurs more often than La Niña. Typically, El Niño weather changes occur over North America during the early winter months. It usually creates warmer than average temperatures over the western and northern US states and western Canada. In the Gulf Coast region of the US, it can create wetter than average conditions that can cause flooding, and can actually cause less moisture in the Ohio Valley and the Pacific Northwest regions of the US. On the opposite end of the spectrum, La Niña occurrences cause periods of cooler sea surface temperatures across the Equatorial Pacific off the coast of South America. The effects of La Niña are opposite those of El Niño, and can bring distinctive changes to the affected areas climate. During a La Niña year, winter temperatures are warmer