Midnight Sun Essay Sample free essay sample

The midnight Sun is a natural phenomenon happening in summer months at topographic points north of the Arctic Circle and South of the Antarctic Circle where the Sun remains seeable at the local midnight. Around the solstice ( June 21 in the North and December 21 in the South ) and given just weather the Sun is seeable for the full 24 hours. The figure of yearss per twelvemonth with possible midnight Sun increases the farther towards either pole 1 goes. Although about defined by the polar circles. in pattern midnight Sun can be seen every bit much as 90 kilometers outside the polar circle. as described below. and the exact latitudes of the farthest ranges of midnight Sun depend on topography and vary somewhat year-to-year. There are no lasting human colonies South of the Antarctic Circle. so the states and districts whose populations experience it are limited to the 1s crossed by the Arctic Circle. e. g. Canada ( Yukon. Northwest Territories. and Nunavut ) . Denmark ( Greenland ) . Finland. Sapmi. Norway. Russia. Sweden. the United States ( Alaska ) . and appendages of Iceland. A one-fourth of Finland’s district lies North of the Arctic Circle and at the country’s northernmost point the Sun does non set at all for 60 yearss during summer. In Svalbard. Norway. the northernmost inhabited part of Europe. there is no sundown from about 19 April to 23 August. The utmost sites are the poles where the Sun can be continuously seeable for a half twelvemonth. The opposite phenomenon. polar dark. occurs in winter when the Sun stays below the skyline throughout the twenty-four hours. Since the axial joust of the Earth is considerable ( about 23 grades 27 proceedingss ) the Sun does non set at high latitudes in ( local ) summer. The continuance of sunlight additions from one twenty-four hours during the summer solstice at the polar circle to several hebdomads merely a 100 kilometers closer to the pole. to six months at the poles. At utmost latitudes. it is normally referred to as polar twenty-four hours. At the poles themselves. the Sun merely rises one time and sets one time each twelvemonth. During the six months when the Sun is above the skyline it spends the yearss continuously traveling around the skyline. making its highest circuit of the sky at the summer solstice. Due to atmospheric refraction and besides because the Sun is a disc instead than a point. the midnight Sun may be experienced at latitudes somewhat below the polar circle. though non transcending one grade ( depending on local conditions ) . For illustration. it is possible to see the midnight Sun in Iceland. even though most of it ( Grimsey being a noteworthy exclusion ) is somewhat south of the Arctic Circle. The same mechanisms do the period of sunshine at the poles to last somewhat more than six months. Even the northern appendages of Scotland ( and those topographic points on similar latitudes such as St. Petersburg ) experience a lasting dusk in the northern sky at these times. Perceivers at highs appreciably above sea degree can see drawn-out periods of midnight Sun as a consequence of the ‘dip’ of the skyline viewed from height.