RELATION OF SEASONS TO THE POSITION OF THE SUN IN THE SKY

We all know that the Earth makes a complete revolution around the sun once every 365 days, following an orbit that is elliptical in
shape. This means that the distance between the Earth and Sun, which is 93 million miles on average, varies throughout the year.
During the first week in January, the Earth is about 1.6 million miles closer to the sun. This is referred to as the perihelion. The
aphelion, or the point at which the Earth is about 1.6 million miles farther away from the sun, occurs during the first week in July.
This fact may sound counter to what we know about seasons in the Northern Hemisphere, but actually the difference is not
significant in terms of climate and is NOT the reason why we have seasons. Seasons are caused by the fact that the Earth is tilted
on its axis by 23.5°. The tilt's orientation with respect to space does not change during the year; thus, the Northern Hemisphere is
tilted toward the sun in June and away from the sun in December, as illustrated in the graphic below.

The seasons are governed by the tilt of the Earth’s axis in space as it journeys around the Sun in a year. When the South Pole of the
Earth is tilted towards the Sun, this is our Summer. Six months later, when the South Pole is tilted away from the Sun, it's our
Winter. In between these we have Autumn and Spring.

Temperatures on our planet are not determined by the distance of the Earth from the Sun. Rather it is the angle of the Sun’s rays
striking the Earth. In Summer, the Sun is high in the Sky and the rays hit the Earth at a steep angle. In winter, the Sun is low in the
Sky and the rays strike the Earth at a shallow angle.

The seasons don’t begin on one day and finish on another. That's because our orbit around the Sun is continuous. It actually takes
quite some time for the Earth to heat up or cool down, and that’s why the seasons change gradually.

Position of the Sun

The position of the Sun in the sky is a function of both time and the geographic coordinates of the observer on the surface of the
Earth. As the Earth moves around the Sun during the course of the year, the Sun appears to move with respect to the fixed stars on
the celestial sphere, along a path called the "ecliptic". The Earth's rotation about its axis causes the fixed stars to move in the sky in
a way that depends on the observer's geographic latitude. The time when a given fixed star crosses the observer's meridian
depends on the geographic longitude. To find the Sun's position for a given observer at a given time, one may therefore proceed in
three steps:

calculate the Sun's position in the ecliptic coordinate system,

convert to the equatorial coordinate system, and

convert to the horizontal coordinate system, for the observer's local time and position.

This calculation is useful in astronomy, navigation, surveying, meteorology, climatology, solar energy, and for designing sundials.