17 ms·
More hours of sun, but it's less intense.
by HPsquared 4mo ago
More hours of sun, but it's less intense.
- codethief 4mo agoThe sun in northern countries in summer is less intense?
- pdonis 4mo agoYes, because it's lower in the sky so more of the UV in it gets absorbed by the atmosphere before reaching the ground. For example, in Florida in the summer, the sun is close to directly overhead at noon. In Scandinavia in the summer, the sun is only about halfway up the sky from the horizon at noon.
- NoPicklez 4mo agoCome to Australia during the summer and watch how quickly you burn outside without sunscreen.
- tremon 4mo agoYes, it's crazy to consider how far north Earth's entire land mass is skewed. Australia is basically the southernmost landmass (apart from Tierra del fuego), yet it is located squarely under the Tropic of Capricorn; at the same distance north of the equator (Tropic of Cancer), you've merely reached Mexico, the Sahara desert, and the Himalayas.
- pocksuppet 4mo agoMost of Europe is at the latitudes of Canada. The whole UK is squarely north of Vancouver. https://vividmaps.com/comparing-latitude-of-europe-and-america/ https://vividmaps.com/comparing-latitude-of-europe-and-ameri...
- pseudohadamard 4mo agoFor non-Australians, that's burn as in "burst into flames", not "your skin goes red". Go to somewhere like Cairns and you can hear people crackling as they walk down the street.
- NoPicklez 4mo agoSmells like pork everywhere
- SJC_Hacker 4mo agoOnly for fair skinned individuals
- folkrav 4mo agoDark skin typically provides a protection equivalent to a ~10 SPF. Meaning some protection, but tons of the actual damaging UVB still going through.
- red-iron-pine 4mo agowhich is like 2/3 of the Oz -- rampant skin cancer happens when you export the palest people on earth, anglo-irish-scots, to an unrelenting desert
- teiferer 4mo agoThat'a not just the angle though, it's an issue with the ozone layer too, right?
- xdavidliu 4mo agoless intense than in countries near equator, not less intense than winter
- Broken_Hippo 4mo agoYeah, kinda. I moved from Indiana to Norway - Trondheim, which is about in the middle of the length of Norway. During the summer, I can read outside at night even though the sun technically goes down for about 4 hours in June. It never gets darker than twilight. A few clouds means you might just have sunset all night. The sun does get surprisingly hot and very warming if we happen to have a sunny day. Jacket in the shade, short sleeves in the sun even though it is 18C/65F. The reason for this is that the sun is at a low angle, so it hits more of your body than it does when the sun is overhead - like you'd get in Australia. This also means that while you need some sunscreen during the day - from about 10 to 5 - it doesn't burn as much. It is less intense in that way - but it just feels different. During December, days are 4 hours of very weak light.
- picofarad 4mo agoHuh now I know why I never liked living in Washington and Oregon, especially at higher altitudes. The sun always felt hotter.
- zippyman55 4mo agoI summer in California and winter in Washington for that reason!
- TeMPOraL 4mo ago> The reason for this is that the sun is at a low angle, so it hits more of your body than it does when the sun is overhead - like you'd get in Australia. This also means that while you need some sunscreen during the day - from about 10 to 5 - it doesn't burn as much. Not sure if I parse this correctly - I'd imagine you need more sunscreen at "low angles" due to more severe and longer exposure? Low angle -> more body surface area exposed directly at near-right angle to Sun -> more direct absorption -> more sunscreen needed?
- Dansvidania 4mo agoat lower angles the sun light needs to go through a much bigger "cross section" of atmosphere which greatly reduces its energy. This is why noon sun is the most dangerous.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- ludicrousdispla 4mo agoI found this resource which shows that sun intensity in June in northern Europe is similar to that in sub-Saharan Africa (in June). https://physics.weber.edu/schroeder/ua/EarthCirclesAndSunRays.png https://physics.weber.edu/schroeder/ua/EarthCirclesAndSunRay... https://physics.weber.edu/schroeder/ua/SunAndSeasons.html https://physics.weber.edu/schroeder/ua/SunAndSeasons.html
- HPsquared 4mo agoAt the equator, the sun is highest at the equinoxes (March and September) and lowest at the solstices. Outside the tropics, the sun is highest at the summer solstice (June or December) and lowest at the winter solstice.
- SJC_Hacker 4mo agoExactly at the equator the sun is directly overhead (90 degrees) at a single time point (close to 12 on depending on where you are within the time zone) every single day The only thing that varies over the year is the path it takes to get there. At the solstices (summer/winter) the path curvature is maximal while t the equinoxes (spring/fall) it is a straight line.
- teiferer 4mo agoSorry that's just obviously false. It's only directly above you at the equinoxes, so twice a year. Otherwise it has traveled further north or south. Before everything was an app, people had physical globes at home which could illustrate this very well.
- calgoo 4mo agoSure but i hide a lot more from the intense sun in spain then i do for the softer sun in sweden. In general i think it balances out quite well.
- fluoridation 4mo agoDoes vitamin D synthesis require direct sunlight, or does it work with scattered light as well?
- lukan 4mo agoNot really, it requires direct sunlight above 45 degree, so northern sweden for example gets plenty of sun in summer, but only for a very short time intense enough sun.
- bryanrasmussen 4mo agoIs it really less intense? When I go out on a sunny day in Denmark it is murder. When I go out on a sunny day in Italy it's generally just overall warm. At any rate another factor is that in the Northern regions it's my experience people do their best to soak up as much sun as possible.
- HPsquared 4mo agoThe sun is at a lower angle from the horizon at higher latitudes. It passes through more atmosphere, losing some UV, and also the surface irradiance on the ground (energy per unit land area) is lower.
- flossly 4mo agoThis. What I've learned for VitD conversion in the skin the sun needs to be more than 45° "high". Below that it's not much effective. Those long summer evenings in northern Europe are thus not all that useful for VitD.
- da_chicken 4mo agoI could believe that if you were near the coast. I grew up in central Michigan and thought the same about the sun until I spent a few years in southern Arizona. The sun there feels like a heat lamp in summer. The low humidity makes the atmosphere absorb less energy. Although it feels like it's about 5 C cooler than it actually is because sweat evaporates so quickly, but once it gets to 43 C you actually just feel vaguely ill just going outside. Standing in the sun is just not something you do. It's a very unique experience to lick your lips and have your tongue feel cold. Of course, neither of those were as bad as Houston in August. It was 38 C and 98 % relative humidity. And, I will point out, it had not rained. That's just what it's like. You walk outside and your glasses instantly fog up and you feel like you desperately need to shower.
- chasd00 4mo agoI live in Dallas and remember going hiking in Arizona and then getting in the car and the windows fogged up from sweat evaporating. Someone from a humid summer climate being outdoors in a dry summer climate has to really watch their water intake. It doesn't feel as hot because it's sucking all the moisture out of you and by the time you realize what's happening you're already not feeling so great. If you're 5 miles from water you're in a bad spot.