I love this animation. After spending years trying to explain these concepts, along comes high-resolution satellite images sewn together from a Lagrangian perspective to create a fast animation that actually shows the seasons changing as Earth tilts on its axis from equinox to solistice to equinox and so on. Credit: Simon Proud, researcher in the […]
Monthly Archives: September 2015
Equinox: Why the Length of Day & Night are Not Equal
The autumnal equinox occurs Wednesday morning at 3:20 am CDT, but the days and nights are not considered equal until Saturday, September 26th. This is because of the atmospheric refraction of sunlight. When a wave encounters a medium whose density differs from that through which the wave has been propagating, conservation of momentum and energy […]
What is the Difference Between a Hurricane and a Typhoon?
Answer: A hurricane is the exact same meteorological phenomenon as a typhoon. The difference is simply a function of the storm’s location relative to the International Date Line (180ºW). A “hurricane” west of the International Date Line (IDL) is called a typhoon. The term is believed to have its origins in Sinitic, one of the […]