Is it true that when earth is closest to the sun is the northern hemisphere in winter?

Answer 1

When Earth is closest to the sun the Southern Hemisphere receives more of the sun's rays, making it hotter, or summer there, and winteri nthe north.

Answer 2

Because of the tilt of the Earth's axis of rotation.

This axis remains fixed as the Earth revolves around the sun. During what we call "summer" in the Northern Hemisphere (which happens to coincide with the Earth's farthest distance away from the sun), the North Pole is tilted toward the sun. At this angle, at every surface location above the Tropic of Cancer (latitude approximately 23oN) sunlight has less atmosphere to travel through (because it's coming in at less of an angle) than it would have to travel through in the NH winter. This means that less sunlight is reflected back into space or absorbed in the upper atmosphere, and so more sunlight can reach the surface, causing more warmth at the surface.

The variable distance from the sun does cause a variation in sunlight received at the surface. I.e. the TOTAL warmth received over the surface of the ENTIRE planet is less when the Earth is farther from the sun. But this is not a huge difference, and it is well surpassed, on a hemispherical basis, by that of the axis tilt. The distance-from-the-sun effect, though, does make NH winters slightly warmer than they would otherwise be, and also makes NH summers cooler than they would otherwise be.

However, the opposite happens in the Southern Hemisphere, where the axis-tilt effect and the distance-from-the-sun effect work in the same direction in both winter and summer. This makes SH winters colder and SH summers hotter. The total effect is that the difference between temperatures in the NH have a smaller fluctuation between winter and summer than temperatures in the SH. In other words, the extremes (both high and low) are less extreme in the NH than in the SH. Or, temperatures are more STABLE, year-round, in the NH. Some people use this as an explanation for why human civilization first developed in the Northern Hemisphere. To this day, populations are much higher in the NH than the SH, even after adjusting for the smaller land area available in the SH. And nations in the NH are far more advanced than those in the SH. Stable temperatures are more favorable for civilization, and its advancement.

Answer 3

Seasons occur not due to the distance from the earth to the sun, but the tilt of the earth. When the North Pole is tilted away from the sun (and thus the south pole is tilted towards the sun) the southern hemisphere gets more direct sunlight, and for longer. Thus it is warmer on the southern hemisphere. This is why January is a colder month for the Northern hemisphere and a warmer one for the southern hemisphere.

Answer 4

The distance from the sun to the perihelion of the earth's orbit, the point in the orbit that is closest to the sun, is 96.71% of the distance from the sun to the aphelion of the earth's orbit, the point in the orbit that is farthest from the sun. The seasonal effects of that difference are insignificant compared to the effects of the tilt of the earth's rotational axis with respect to the plane of its orbit.

Answer 5

No. As it happens the Earth is closest to the sun when it is winter in the northern hemisphere. Seasons like summer and winter are related to the tilt of the earth with respect to the plane of its orbit about the sun, not to the distance from the sun.

Answer 6

It is true when closest the sun also northern hemisphere. Winter coldest from afar.

Answer 7

no.thw diference in season of the earth from sun it dosent play any role in earth

Answer 8

Because the Sun is closer to the Southern Hemisphere at that time of year.