The Southern Hemisphere or southern hemisphere[1] is the half of a planet that is south of the equator—the word hemisphere literally means 'half ball'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere south of the celestial equator.
Earth's southern hemisphere contains five continents (Antarctica, Australia, most of South America, parts of Africa and of Asia), and four oceans (South Atlantic, Indian, South Pacific, and Southern). Due to the tilt of Earth's rotation relative to the Sun and the ecliptic plane, Summer is December 21 through March 21 and winter is June 21 through to September 21.
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Geography
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. The southern hemisphere is also 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). 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 through the north causes an apparent right-left trajectory through the sky unlike the left-right motion of the sun when seen from the northern hemisphere as it passes through the southern sky. Sun-cast shadows 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 southern temperate zone, a subsection of the southern hemisphere, is nearly all oceanic. The only countries that lie entirely within this zone are Uruguay, Lesotho and New Zealand. Countries lying partly in the zone are Chile (most of), Argentina (most of), Paraguay, Brazil, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa (most of), Mozambique, Madagascar and Australia. 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.
List of continents and countries
Continents
- Antarctica
- Africa (approximately 1/3 of it - from south of Libreville in Gabon in the west to south of Somalia in the east)
- Australia
- South America (mostly, south of the Amazon river mouth in the east and Quito in the west)
African countries
- Entirely
- Angola
- Botswana
- Burundi
- Comores
- Lesotho
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Rwanda
- South Africa
- Swaziland
- Tanzania
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
- Mostly
- Partly
- Equatorial Guinea
- Kenya
- Somalia
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Uganda
- hallagondria
Asian countries
- Entirely
- Mostly
Indian Ocean countries
- Entirely
- Partly
Oceania countries
- Entirely
- Australia
- Cook Islands
- Easter Island
- Fiji
- Nauru
- New Zealand
- Niue
- Papua New Guinea
- Pitcairn
- Samoa
- Solomon Islands
- Tahiti
- Tokelau
- Tonga
- Tuvalu
- Vanuatu
- Mostly
South American countries
- Entirely
- Mostly
- Partly
Other territories
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See also
- Northern Hemisphere
- Seasons
- Solstice
- Equinox
- Tropic of Capricorn
- Crux (or Southern Cross)
References
- ^ Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary (based on Collegiate vol., 11th ed.) 2006. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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| Northern hemisphere • Southern hemisphere • Western hemisphere • Eastern hemisphere • Land hemisphere • Water hemisphere |
