Aphelion day on July 6th
This Friday, July 6th, at about 6 PM MDT, the Earth will reach it’s Aphelion point of it’s orbit, the point that marks the greatest distance the Earth will be from the Sun. This is because the orbit of the Earth around the Sun is not circular, but slightly elliptical. On July 6th the Earth will be approximately 94.5 million miles from the Sun, a shade over 3.1 million miles further away than it was when it was at perihelion (Earth’s closest point to the Sun) back on January 3rd.
One might ask why is it warmer in the Northern Hemisphere during Summer when the Earth is 3.1 million miles further away from the Sun? Much of the answer lies in the tilt of the Earth on it’s axis. Even though we are further away, the effect from the axial tilt results in the Sun being higher in the sky, which results in more energy being received over a given area. A simple way to visualize this is to shine a flashlight directly over a surface and noting the size of the light on that surface, then shining the flashlight at that surface from an angle. The same amount of light becomes more spread out, thus less energy is received over that same given area. There are other factors responsible as well.
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One might ask why is it warmer in the Northern Hemisphere during Summer when the Earth is 3.1 million miles further away from the Sun? Much of the answer lies in the tilt of the Earth on it’s axis. Even though we are further away, the effect from the axial tilt results in the Sun being higher in the sky, which results in more energy being received over a given area. A simple way to visualize this is to shine a flashlight directly over a surface and noting the size of the light on that surface, then shining the flashlight at that surface from an angle. The same amount of light becomes more spread out, thus less energy is received over that same given area. There are other factors responsible as well.
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