I learned this in AstroC10 and I thought it was really cool! We usually think that the earth's axis of rotation is perpendicular to the vector pointing to the sun. Having the angle change can mean one side of earth burns and the other freezes, its cool!
LucasArmand
Since the Earth is a sphere, the total irradiance on the surface should be the same year round, with only the location of highest intensity changing. I wonder, do oceans and land absorb/reflect light differently? And if so, does the world have a summer (Northern hemisphere summer vs. Southern hemisphere summer) where more light is absorbed due to geographical differences? My guess would be that ocean's absorb more energy, and that the Southern hemisphere is more ocean by % surface area, so then the Southern hemisphere summer absorbs more energy than the Northern hemisphere.
I learned this in AstroC10 and I thought it was really cool! We usually think that the earth's axis of rotation is perpendicular to the vector pointing to the sun. Having the angle change can mean one side of earth burns and the other freezes, its cool!
Since the Earth is a sphere, the total irradiance on the surface should be the same year round, with only the location of highest intensity changing. I wonder, do oceans and land absorb/reflect light differently? And if so, does the world have a summer (Northern hemisphere summer vs. Southern hemisphere summer) where more light is absorbed due to geographical differences? My guess would be that ocean's absorb more energy, and that the Southern hemisphere is more ocean by % surface area, so then the Southern hemisphere summer absorbs more energy than the Northern hemisphere.