what happens during a Spring equinox?

Question

well the southern hemisphere Spring Equinox just happened and i was wondering what has changed?
i know it's the fall Equinox in the north

Answer 1

As far as noticeable change you might see, about the only thing different that is due to the Spring Equinox is the daylight hours (between sunrise and sunset) will be a couple/few minutes longer than it was yesterday. Other than that, there is no "magical" event that happens.



Going forward, the daylight hours will get longer and longer until around the Summer Solstice, when they start getting shorter and shorter again until the Winter Solstice. The average temperature starts increasing as this is when the Southern Hemisphere starts getting more and more direct rays from the Sun, meaning less energy will be reflected back into space.



All of this also happens in the Northern Hemisphere. The only difference is the dates that the equinox and solstices falls on. While the Southern Hemisphere has their summertime start toward the end of the year, in the Northern Hemisphere, it starts around mid-year. So the start of each season is roughly 6 months between the two hemispheres.

Answer 2

So the earth rotates on an axis. This means that it is tilted slightly to the side, and the poles are not exacly up and down, but rather point diagonally up and down. So what does this mean for seasons? Lets use right and left to simplify things. Imagine that the north pole, while pointing up also points a little left, so it points diagonally up and to the left. That would mean the south pole pointed in the opposite direction - down and to the right. So, if the earth is on the right side of the sun, the norther half of the earth is closer to the sun than the southern half. This creates summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern hemisphere. Remember though, the earth is revolving around the sun, so sometimes the earth is on the left side of the sun. At this time, the northern hemisphere is pointed away from the sun (creating winter) and the southern hemisphere is pointed towards it (creating summer). It is important to note that these temperature changes are due to the angle of light from the sun, rather than distance from it.



Okay, part 2... what is the equinox? So you know now what creates winter and summer. The equinox is what happens in between. So if the earth is on the left side of the sun, it is winter in the southern hemisphere. As the earth slowly moves to the left side of the sun, the southern hemisphere begins to point more and more directly towards the sun. The equinox occurs when the Southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere are both equally tilted towards the sun. After the equinox, the southern hemisphere will be pointed more directly at the sun than the northern hemisphere. So after the equinox, the southern hemisphere is getting closer to summer (spring), while the northern hemisphere is moving away from summer and into autumn.

Answer 3

The equinox is the day (well, two days, one in March and the other in September) when the hours of daylight and night are most evenly split at 12/12 (in fact, "equinox" means "equal night"). It's also the day when the sun rises most closely to due east, and sets most closely to due west.

Answer 4

That's the day the sun crosses the celestial equator and into the northern hemisphere. Fall equinox is when the sun moves from the northern hemisphere into the southern hemisphere.

Answer 5

After this date, every northern hemisphere location will have a shorter daytime than every location south of itself, and every southern hemisphere location will have a longer daytime than every location north of itself.

Answer 6

In the Southern Hemisphere, the days begin to get longer and the nights shorter. Generally speaking, the average daily temperature begins to get warmer.

Answer 7

daytime = nighttime