Season: Difference between revisions

A season is one of the major divisions of the year. Typically, the year is divided into four seasons: spring, summer, autumn (fall), and winter. Some cultures may have a different number of seasons; for instance, some indigenous peoples in Australia's Northern Territory use six seasons.

In tropical and even subtropical regions it is more common to speak of the rainy (or wet, or monsoon) season versus the dry season, as the amount of precipitation may vary more drastically than the average temperature.

The seasons are caused ultimately by the fact that the Earth's axis is not perpendicular to its orbital plane; it deviates by an angle of approximately 23.5 degrees of arc. Thus, at any given time during the summer or winter, one part of the planet is more directly exposed to the rays of the Sun (see Fig. 1). This exposure alternates as the Earth revolves in its orbit. At any given time, regardless of season, the northern and southern hemispheres experience opposite seasons (see Fig. 2 and Seasonality table).

Climatic effects

In most parts of the world, seasons are marked by changes in the amount of sunlight, which in turn often cause cycles of dormancy in plants and hibernation in animals. In the tropics, there is no noticeable change in the amount of sunlight, but there are still fluctuations in rainfall, producing a similar alternation between fertile and infertile times of the year. The concept of seasonality originated from these changes long before its celestial cause became known.

These fluctuations are more pronounced at higher latitudes. The Equator does not have any noticeable fluctuation at all, while the North Pole and South Pole have extreme fluctuations. There, the sun rises once in the spring and sets once in the fall; thus, the day and night last uninterrupted for 183 calendar days each. Seasonal weather fluctuations also depend on factors such as proximity to oceans or other large bodies of water, currents in those oceans, El Niño/ENSO and other oceanic cycles, and prevailing winds.

The cycle of seasons in the polar and temperate zones of one hemisphere is opposite to that in the other. Thus, when it is day in the North Pole it is night in the South pole and vice-versa. Moreover, when it is summer in the Northern hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern hemisphere, and vice versa, and when it is spring in the Northern hemisphere it is autumn in the Southern hemisphere, and vice versa.

Curiously, a study of temperature records over the past 300 years (David Thompson, SCIENCE, April 1995) shows that the climatic seasons are governed by the anomalistic year rather than the tropical year.

Reckoning

The date at which each season begins depends on how it is defined. In the United States, the seasons are considered to begin at the astronomical solstices and equinoxes: these are sometimes known as the "astronomical seasons". By this reckoning, summer begins at summer solstice, winter at winter solstice, spring at the vernal equinox and autumn at the autumnal equinox.

In the Chinese calendar, the seasons are defined so that the solstices and equinoxes occur in the middle of each season.

In broadcasting, a season is generally a one-year cycle in the production of a television series.