Question

Why are the poles and slightly lower latitudes so cold in the summertime when they receive almost 24 hours of daylight? I know the earth travels around the sun in an elliptical path. Could this have something to do with it? How does this elliptical path relate to the seasons?

Answer 1

Explanation:

As the earth travels around the sun in the elliptical orbit it must also be know that the axis of the earth is tilted as well.

• So when the earth is at the farthest point and the tilt of the earth's axis is towards the sun in that case the sun rays always incident on the surface of the earth near the poles and hence there is sunlight for the 24 hours of the day. But the intensity of these rays is very low because of the their slanted angle of incident. In other words the same sun rays cover a larger area and the luminous intensity is reduced.

• When the earth is near to the sun we have an increased average temperature of the day during that phase giving us an experience of summer season and vice-versa is the condition in winter seasons. The tilt of the earths axis is responsible for variation in extremities of the seasons with respect to the geographical location.