Which hemisphere is tilted toward the sun for the autumnal equinox?

Answer 1

The Tropic of Capricorn.

Answer 2

Both hemispheres are tilted all of the time. The one tilted toward the Sun is in Summer while the other experiences Winter. In Spring and Fall the tilt is sideways relative to the Sun.

The distance to the Sun only changes by 0.00000001% or some other tiny number so that is not why it is hotter or colder based on the tilt. Instead, the tilt gives us more or less light in three different ways. When you face toward the Sun you get more day hours, the light is more direct, and the light goes through the smallest layer of atmosphere possible.

When tilted away the light has to travel through much more air (where some of it disperses,) has to strike the surface of the Earth at an angle (so the photons are more spread out, or in other words light is spread out more for any bit of land,) and you have fewer hours of daylight.

These things are all much easier to understand with pictures but I think this was clear enough.

Answer 3

"Your" hemisphere. The northern hemisphere is pointed more toward the Sun from March 21 to September 21, and the northern hemisphere's summer solstice is on June 21 (more or less). The Southern Hemisphere is pointed more toward the Sun between September 21 and March 21, and the southern hemisphere's summer solstice is on December 21.

Answer 4

The Earth is always tilted, no matter what season.

When it is hotter in the northern hemisphere the tilt of the Earth's axis points the north pole towards (by 23,5 degrees at midsummer) the Sun. When it is midwinter in the north, the south pole is tilted as much towards the Sun (and the Earth is closer to the Sun! but that has very little to do with summer and winter heat or cold).

At the equinoxes in March and September the poles are the same distance as the center of the Earth from the Sun. The Earth axis is still tilted with respect to the ecliptic but being in a plane perpendicular to the ecliptic at those times, the day and night are equally long all over the Earth.

Answer 5

No, it didn't. On December 21, the winter solstice, the south pole was tilted 23.5 degrees toward the Sun, so the Sun's angle above the horizon was 23.5 degrees - all day and all night.

The apparent behavior of the Sun exactly at the Poles is a little strange. We'll take the South Pole as an example, because there is actually a research station right AT the South Pole.

On September 21, the Sun rose after a night that was 6 months long. (They had had about 2 weeks of "twilight" as the Sun approached the horizon, like a "dawn" that lasts for 14 days instead of 14 minutes.) After the Equinox on September 21, the Sun began a long, slow spiral up the sky. We think of the Sun rising in the east; at the South Pole, every direction is "north", so the sun rises in the North. The Sun doesn't "rise"; it just creeps around the horizon, going around and around. Each "day" the Sun is a little higher and a little higher, until it is 23.5 degrees above the horizon.

That's as high as it ever goes. On December 21, with the Sun having been up for 90 days or so, the Sun keeps going around and around the sky, except creeping down a little bit each "day". Down and down the Sun goes, like water in the bathtub drain, around and down day after day until the Sun begins to skim the horizon in early March. By March 21, the sun starts to set, spiraling down to the north (remember, at the South Pole, every direction is north!) until it sets and twilight follows the Sun around the sky for a few days as it gradually gets darker and darker and darker.

Meanwhile, at the NORTH Pole, the Sun has just risen after a night that lasted from September to March, and cycle begins again.

Answer 6

Whichever hemisphere happens to be relatively tilted toward the sun is

the one that experiences Summer. The other hemisphere experiences

Winter at the same time.

Answer 7

During summer, the Sun:

a) is higher in the sky, and

b) is above the horizon for more hours.

During summer, the Sun:

a) is higher in the sky, and

b) is above the horizon for more hours.

During summer, the Sun:

a) is higher in the sky, and

b) is above the horizon for more hours.

During summer, the Sun:

a) is higher in the sky, and

b) is above the horizon for more hours.

Answer 8

The Earth is like an enormous gyroscope; it stays in a constant orientation in free space. That is, the Earth's "angle of inclination" doesn't change much.

The Earth's "tilt" can only be measured in reference to something else; the usual plane of reference is the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, called the "ecliptic". Compared to the ecliptic, the Earth's axis of rotation is tilted at an angle of about 23.5 degrees. The Earth maintains this same "tilt angle" as it goes around the Sun.

"Summer" is when the Earth reaches a point in its orbit where the north pole of the Earth is tilted more toward the Sun than away from it.

Answer 9

During the autumnal equinox, the Southern Hemisphere is tilted towards the sun. This causes the days to become longer and the nights shorter in the Southern Hemisphere.

Answer 10

When the southern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun, that means that the northern hemisphere is titled away from the sun. This is winter.