The Seasons

Contents:

  • The Four Seasons: Change Marks the Passing of a Year
  • The annual cycle
  • Location, location, location
  • Navigation menu

    • The seasons are not the result of the variation in Earth's distance to the Sun because of its elliptical orbit. Orbital eccentricity can influence temperatures, but on Earth, this effect is small and is more than counteracted by other factors; research shows that the Earth as a whole is actually slightly warmer when farther from the sun. This is because the Northern Hemisphere has more land than the Southern, and land warms more readily than sea.

    In the temperate and polar regions , seasons are marked by changes in the amount of sunlight , which in turn often causes cycles of dormancy in plants and hibernation in animals. These effects vary with latitude and with proximity to bodies of water. For example, the South Pole is in the middle of the continent of Antarctica and therefore a considerable distance from the moderating influence of the southern oceans. The North Pole is in the Arctic Ocean , and thus its temperature extremes are buffered by the water.

    The result is that the South Pole is consistently colder during the southern winter than the North Pole during the northern winter. The seasonal cycle in the polar and temperate zones of one hemisphere is opposite to that of the other.

    The Four Seasons: Change Marks the Passing of a Year

    When it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern, and vice versa. The tropical and subtropical regions see little annual fluctuation of sunlight. As a result, the amount of precipitation tends to vary more dramatically than the average temperature.

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    When the Zone is north of the Equator, the northern tropics experience their wet season while the southern tropics have their dry season. This pattern reverses when the Zone migrates to a position south of the Equator. In meteorological terms, the solstices the maximum and minimum insolation do not fall in the middles of summer and winter.

    The heights of these seasons occur up to 7 weeks later because of seasonal lag. Seasons, though, are not always defined in meteorological terms. In astronomical reckoning by hours of daylight alone, the solstices and equinoxes are in the middle of the respective seasons. Because of seasonal lag due to thermal absorption and release by the oceans, regions with a continental climate , which predominate in the Northern Hemisphere , often consider these four dates to be the start of the seasons as in the diagram, with the cross-quarter days considered seasonal midpoints.

    The length of these seasons is not uniform because of Earth's elliptical orbit and its different speeds along that orbit. Calendar-based reckoning defines the seasons in absolute rather than relative terms. Accordingly, if floral activity is regularly observed during the coolest quarter of the year in a particular area, it is still considered winter despite the traditional association of flowers with spring and summer. Additionally, the seasons are considered to change on the same dates everywhere that uses a particular calendar method regardless of variations in climate from one area to another.

    Most calendar-based methods use a four-season model to identify the warmest and coldest seasons, which are separated by two intermediate seasons. Meteorological seasons are reckoned by temperature, with summer being the hottest quarter of the year and winter the coldest quarter of the year.

    In the Societas Meteorologica Palatina which became defunct in , an early international organization for meteorology, defined seasons as groupings of three whole months as identified by the Gregorian calendar. Ever since, professional meteorologists all over the world have used this definition. For the southern hemisphere temperate zone, spring begins on 1 September, summer on 1 December, autumn on 1 March, and winter on 1 June. In Sweden and Finland, meteorologists use a non-calendar based definition for the seasons based on the temperature.

    This implies two things: This almost always occurred in March. However, with global warming this temperature is now not uncommon in the winter. Astronomical timing as the basis for designating the temperate seasons dates back at least to the Julian calendar used by the ancient Romans. It continues to be used on many modern Gregorian calendars worldwide, although some countries like Australia, New Zealand, and Russia prefer to use meteorological reckoning. The precise timing of the seasons is determined by the exact times of transit of the sun over the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn for the solstices and the times of the sun's transit over the equator for the equinoxes , or a traditional date close to these times.

    The following diagram shows the relation between the line of solstice and the line of apsides of Earth's elliptical orbit. The orbital ellipse with eccentricity exaggerated for effect goes through each of the six Earth images, which are sequentially the perihelion periapsis—nearest point to the sun on anywhere from 2 January to 5 January, the point of March equinox on 19, 20 or 21 March, the point of June solstice on 20 or 21 June, the aphelion apoapsis—farthest point from the sun on anywhere from 4 July to 7 July, the September equinox on 22 or 23 September, and the December solstice on 21 or 22 December.

    These "astronomical" seasons are not of equal length, because of the elliptical nature of the orbit of the Earth, as discovered by Johannes Kepler. From the March equinox it currently takes The times of the equinoxes and solstices are not fixed with respect to the modern Gregorian calendar, but fall about six hours later every year, amounting to one full day in four years. They are reset by the occurrence of a leap year. The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the March equinox no later than 21 March as accurately as is practical.

    Gregorian calendar seasonal error. The calendar equinox used in the calculation of Easter is 21 March, the same date as in the Easter tables current at the time of the Council of Nicaea in AD The calendar is therefore framed to prevent the astronomical equinox wandering onto 22 March. From Nicaea to the date of the reform, the years , , , , , , , and , which would not have been leap years in the Gregorian calendar, amount to nine days, but astronomers directed that ten days be removed. Currently, the most common equinox and solstice dates are March 20, June 21, September 22 or 23 and December 21; the four-year average slowly shifts to earlier times as the century progresses.

    This shift is a full day in about years compensated mainly by the century "leap year" rules of the Gregorian calendar and as was a leap year the current shift has been progressing since the beginning of the last century, when equinoxes and solstices were relatively late. This also means that in many years of the twentieth century, the dates of March 21, June 22, September 23 and December 22 were much more common, so older books teach and older people may still remember these dates. On the other hand, people living far to the west America whose clocks run behind UTC may experience an equinox as early as March Over thousands of years, the Earth's axial tilt and orbital eccentricity vary see Milankovitch cycles.

    The equinoxes and solstices move westward relative to the stars while the perihelion and aphelion move eastward. Thus, ten thousand years from now Earth's northern winter will occur at aphelion and northern summer at perihelion. The severity of seasonal change — the average temperature difference between summer and winter in location — will also change over time because the Earth's axial tilt fluctuates between Smaller irregularities in the times are caused by perturbations of the Moon and the other planets.

    The annual cycle

    When do spring, summer, fall, and winter start and end? Two methods are most commonly used to define the dates of the seasons: the astronomical definition and the meteorological definition. The astronomical definition uses the dates of equinoxes and solstices to mark the beginning. A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather, ecology, and amount of daylight. On Earth, seasons result from Earth's orbit around the Sun.

    Solar timing is based on insolation in which the solstices and equinoxes are seen as the midpoints of the seasons. It was the method for reckoning seasons in medieval Europe, especially by the Celts , and is still ceremonially observed in Ireland and some east Asian countries. Material surviving from these large-scale Viennese performances indicates the use of tripled wind arranged into three separate groups, each one similar to the Harmonie wind ensembles of the time , doubled brass and as many as ten horn players, backed up by at least eighty string players and similar numbers of singers.

    In addition, a fortepiano usually plays in secco recitatives , with or without other instruments from the orchestra. The oratorio is divided into four parts, corresponding to Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, with the usual recitatives , arias , choruses, and ensemble numbers.

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    Among the more rousing choruses are a hunting song with horn calls, a wine celebration with dancing peasants [10] foreshadowing the third movement of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony , a loud thunderstorm ditto for Beethoven's fourth movement , and an absurdly stirring ode to toil:. Haydn remarked that while he had been industrious his whole life, this was the first occasion he had ever been asked to write a chorus in praise of industry. The work is filled with the "tone-painting" that also characterized The Creation: There is some evidence that Haydn himself was not happy with van Swieten's libretto, or at least one particular aspect of tone-painting it required, namely the portrayal of the croaking of frogs, which is found during the serene movement that concludes Part II, "Summer".

    The version of the anecdote given below is from the work of Haydn scholar H. Amid these changes appeared an off-the-cuff complaint about van Swieten's libretto:. The term "Frenchified trash" was almost certainly not a gesture of contempt for France or French people; Haydn in fact had friendly relationships with French musicians see, e.

    Although the work has always attracted far less attention than The Creation , it nonetheless has been strongly appreciated by critics.

    Location, location, location

    Thus, the tropics are characterized by numerous "mini-seasons" within the larger seasonal blocks of time. The Southern Hemisphere experiences winter while its northern neighbors chart summer; the north sees the slow blossom of spring while the south brings in the autumn harvest. This shift is a full day in about years compensated mainly by the century "leap year" rules of the Gregorian calendar and as was a leap year the current shift has been progressing since the beginning of the last century, when equinoxes and solstices were relatively late. Indigenous people in polar, temperate and tropical climates of northern Eurasia, the Americas, Africa, Oceania, and Australia have traditionally defined the seasons ecologically by observing the activity of the plants, animals and weather around them. Regions near the equator experience fairly constant temperatures throughout the year, with balmy winters barely discernible from warm summers. Equinoxes, Solstices, Perihelion, and Aphelion".

    Charles Rosen calls both oratorios "among the greatest works of the century", but judges The Seasons to be the musically more successful of the two. Van Swieten, at any rate, was certainly keen to follow up on the former's success with another large-scale pictorial work in a similar vein, [19] and some authors have seen the two oratorios as constituting the first and second act of a metaphorical 'vast sacred opera'.

    People closer to the poles might experience icier, more frigid winters, while those closer to the equator might suffer hotter summers. Other factors can also affect the weather and temperature over the seasons; some areas experience dry summers as temperatures spike, while others might call summer their "wet season. Mountainous regions might experience more snowfall than plains within the same latitude, while oceanfront property could see an increase in violent tropical storms as the weather shifts. The time of year a region experiences a season depends on whether it is in the northern or southern hemisphere.

    The Southern Hemisphere experiences winter while its northern neighbors chart summer; the north sees the slow blossom of spring while the south brings in the autumn harvest. The cycle of seasons is caused by Earth's tilt toward the sun. The planet rotates around an invisible axis.

    At different times during the year, the northern or southern axis is closer to the sun. During these times, the hemisphere tipped toward the star experiences summer, while the hemisphere tilted away from the sun experiences winter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA. At other locations in Earth's annual journey, the axis is not tilted toward or away from the sun. During these times of the year, the hemispheres experience spring and autumn. The astronomical definition of the seasons relates to specific points in Earth's trip around the sun.

    The summer and winter solstice, the longest and shortest day of the year, occur when Earth's axis is either closest or farthest from the sun. The south's summer solstice occurs around December 21, the winter solstice for the north. In both hemispheres, the summer solstice marks the first day of astronomical summer, while the winter solstice is considered the first day of astronomical winter.

    Equinoxes are another significant day during Earth's journey around the Sun.

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    On these days, the planet's axis is pointed parallel to the Sun, rather than toward or away from it. Day and night during the equinoxes are supposed to be close to equal. The spring, or vernal, equinox for the northern hemisphere takes place around March 20, the same day as the south's autumnal equinox.