Aphelion Day 2018: Earth Is Farthest from the Sun Today

Space.com ^ | July 6, 2018 07:24am ET | Hanneke Weitering,

[BenLurkin]

The exact moment of aphelion happens at 12:46 p.m. EDT (1646 GMT), when Earth will be 94,507,803 miles (152,095,566 kilometers) away from the sun. That's more than 1.5 million miles (2.5 million km) farther than the planet's average distance of about 93 million miles (150 million km) — and twice as far away as perihelion, or the shortest distance from the sun, which happened on Jan. 3. 

In the cosmic scheme of things, these annual changes in Earth's distance from the sun are tiny. Earth's distance at aphelion and perihelion differ from the average distance between Earth and the sun by less than 2 percent. Aphelion and perhelion are not related to the seasons, and people on Earth won't notice any difference in the weather or climate because the Earth is farther away from the sun, NASA officials have said.

...

But this doesn't necessarily mean that Earth's longer distance from the sun has no noticeable effects, Roy Spencer, of the Global Hydrology and Climate Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said in the same statement. "Averaged over the globe, sunlight falling on Earth in July (aphelion) is indeed about 7 percent less intense than it is in January (perihelion)," Spencer said. 

Strangely, this doesn't mean that Earth is any cooler when it's farther from the sun. "The average temperature of Earth at aphelion is about 4 degrees Fahrenheit (2.3 degrees Celsius) higher than it is at perihelion," Spencer said.

[Excellence]

Great animations. I wish I’d had this when I was home schooling my kids.

[oldtech]

It’s supposed to hit 99° here today. What’s it going to be like tomorrow when the sun may be a couple miles closer? I guess it all depends on which climate change dipstick you decide to pay attention to.

[equaviator]

Duly noted. Thanks.