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Southern Hemisphere
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The southern hemisphere is the half of a planet's surface (or celestial sphere) that is south of the equator (the word hemisphere literally means 'half ball').
On Earth, the southern hemisphere contains five continents (Antarctica, Australia, most of South America, parts of Africa and of Asia), and four oceans (South Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Southern). Summer is December through to February and winter is June through to August.
The southern hemisphere is significantly less polluted than the northern hemisphere because of lower overall population densities (a total of 10 to 12% of the human population), lower levels of industrialisation, and smaller land masses (air currents run mostly west–east so pollution does not easily spread north or south). The southern temperate zone is in fact nearly all water. The only countries that include at least some of this zone are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa and Uruguay.
Climates in the southern hemisphere tend to be slightly milder than those in the northern hemisphere. This is because the southern hemisphere has significantly more ocean and less land. Water heats up and cools down more slowly than land.
In the southern hemisphere the sun passes from east to west through the north, although north of the tropic of Capricorn the mean Sun can be directly overhead or due south at midday. The sun rotating to the north causes sun-cast shadows to turn anticlockwise through the day (sun dials have the hours in reverse). Hurricanes and tropical storms spin clockwise in the southern hemisphere (as opposed to counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere) due to the Coriolis effect. A fact often missed is that in the southern hemisphere, the Moon appears to be upside-down compared to the view from the northern hemisphere, or, for people in the south, the northerners have an upside-down image of it.
The south pole is oriented towards the galactic centre and this, combined with clearer skies, makes for excellent viewing of the night sky from the southern hemisphere, with brighter and more numerous stars.
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Continents in the southern hemisphere:
- Antarctica
- Australia
- most of South America, south of the Amazon river mouth in the east and Quito in the west
- about 1/3 of Africa, south of Libreville in Gabon in the west to south of the southern tip of Somalia in the east
Wholly
Mostly
Partly
Entirely
- Angola
- Botswana
- Burundi
- Comores
- Lesotho
- Malawi
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Rwanda
- South Africa
- Swaziland
- Tanzania
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Mostly
Partly
Partly
Entirely
- Australia
- Cook Islands
- Easter Island
- Fiji
- Nauru
- New Zealand
- Niue
- Papua New Guinea
- Pitcairn
- Samoa
- Solomon Islands
- Tahiti
- Tokelau
- Tonga
- Tuvalu
- Vanuatu
Mostly
Entirely
Mostly
Partly
- American Samoa (USA)
- Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands
- Bouvet Island (Norway)
- Chagos Archipelago (United Kingdom)
- Easter Island (Chile)
- Falkland Islands (United Kingdom)
- French Polynesia (France)
- Galápagos Islands (Ecuador)
- Jarvis Island (USA)
- Juan Fernández Islands (Chile)
- Kerguelen Islands (France)
- Kermadec Islands (New Zealand)
- Mayotte (France)
- New Caledonia (France)
- New Zealand sub-antarctic islands (New Zealand)
- Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands (United Kingdom)
- Réunion (France)
- Saint Helena (United Kingdom)
- Saint Paul island and Amsterdam island (France)
- South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (United Kingdom, claimed by Argentina)
- South Orkney Islands (Antarctic Treaty signatories)
- Swains Island (USA, claimed by Tokelau)
- Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom)
- Territory of New Caledonia and Dependencies (France)
- Territory of Wallis and Futuna Islands (France)
- Northern Hemisphere
- Seasons
- Solstice
- Equinox
- Tropic of Capricorn
- Crux (or Southern Cross)
| Hemispheres of the Earth |
|---|
| Northern Hemisphere • Southern Hemisphere • Western Hemisphere • Eastern Hemisphere • Land hemisphere • Water hemisphere |