In geography, there is a conditional division of the Earth into hemispheres. In accordance with their location in relation to the equator (the dividing line), they are called North and South. Each hemisphere has its own characteristics.

Hemispheres on the map

The Equator encircles the Earth, crossing Eurasia, Africa, and also South America. Each of the remaining continents is located entirely in one of the hemispheres: North America- in the North, Australia and Antarctica - in the South.

Comparison

Let's look at the points, what is the difference between the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern.

1. temperature at the poles. Despite its name, the North Pole is less severe than the South Pole. What explains this? The fact that the zone of the North Pole is the ocean, and the zone of the South Pole is Antarctica. Water is lower in level and conducts heat, in contrast to the solid towering mainland.
2. The movement of air masses. In the Southern Hemisphere, the rotation of emerging cyclones occurs clockwise, and anticyclones - in the opposite direction. Air currents in the other hemisphere are spinning in reverse.
3. Seasons. While the warm summer season lasts in the Northern Hemisphere, people in the Southern Hemisphere have to endure the winter. And the winter months familiar to us are summer in the other half of the globe.
4. Fauna. Each hemisphere has its own unique animals. In Severny you can meet walrus, polar bear, polar fox. In the South - kangaroo, hummingbird.
5. Distribution of land and water. In the Northern Hemisphere, vast land masses are concentrated. This is most of the entire landmass of the planet. A significant proportion of the other hemisphere is water.
6. Population. What is the difference between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres? The fact that there are immeasurably more inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere. Only 10% of the world's population lives in the South.
7. Starry sky. In the field of view of people staying in the Northern Hemisphere, there is a set of stars and constellations that is different from that which is visible to southerners. In particular, in the Northern Hemisphere there is an important landmark of the North Star, and in the opposite hemisphere the Southern Cross has the same meaning.

constellation map
southern hemisphere

Constellations are arbitrarily taken stellar groups, as they are seen from the earth and completely independent of the actual distances and possible interconnection of the stars. The division of stars into constellations dates back to the deepest antiquity. Most of the constellations transmitted to us by the Arabs from the Greeks undoubtedly originated in the primitive pre-Semitic cultures of Mesopotamia. The main place among them is occupied by the zodiac constellations. The themes for the zodiac constellations were the hoary legends of primitive mankind, ideas about its fate, less often the personification of astronomical and meteorological phenomena. The oldest names of the constellations were abbreviations for myths.

Astronomer Jan Hevelius

Ptolemy in his work "Almagest" canonized the following 48 ancient constellations, which are still called Ptolemaic. Zodiac constellations: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. Northern constellations: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Dragon, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Perseus, Bootes, Northern Crown, Hercules, Lyra, Cygnus, Charioteer, Ophiuchus, Snake, Arrow, Eagle, Dolphin, Foal, Pegasus, Triangle. Southern constellations: Whale, Orion, River, Hare, Dog large, small, Ship, Hydra, Bowl, Raven, Centaurus, Wolf, Altar, Southern Crown, Southern Fish. Ptolemy did not consider Coma Veronica to be a separate constellation.

Arab stargazers, in addition to lunar houses, gave various names for individual bright stars. Having become acquainted with the astronomy of the Greeks and having translated Ptolemy's Almagest, they changed some names according to the position of the stars in the drawings of the Ptolemaic constellations. In the 12th century, a Latin translation of the Almagest from Arabic was made, and in the 16th century, directly from Greek, according to found manuscripts. The stars of the southern hemisphere, unknown to Greek astronomers, were broken down into constellations much later. Some of them were outlined by the Arabs.

There is no doubt that the navigators of the 15th and 16th centuries (Vespucci, Corsali, Pigafetta, Peter Medinsky, Gutman) gradually assembled new constellations during their travels to the southern seas. They were put in order by Peter Dirk Keizer. During his stay on the island of Java (1595), he identified the locations of 120 southern stars and placed constellation figures on them. The following 13 constellations were included in the Bayer (1603) and Bartsch (1624) atlases based on the Keyser inventory: Phoenix, Goldfish, Chameleon, Flying Fish, Southern Cross, Water Snake, Fly, Bird of Paradise, Southern Triangle, Peacock, Indian, Crane, Toucan. Of these, the Southern Cross was known to Ptolemy and was part of the Centaurus.

The current names of the constellations and stars represent an amalgam of these lists and translations. The ancient drawings of the constellations are completely lost. Only distorted figures on Arabic globes of the thirteenth century have come down to us; for example, on a globe in the Borghese Museum in Veletri (1225), in the Mathematical Society in Dresden (1279), in the London Astronomical Society, etc. At the beginning of the 16th century, the famous Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer painted the constellations according to their description by Ptolemy.

Unfortunately, not a single original copy of Dürer's drawings has survived. Dürer's drawings, modified by other artists, were reprinted in the star atlases of Bayer (1603), Flamsteed (1729). Then the figures of the constellations of the newest layout appeared. Currently, constellation drawings are no longer printed. The merit of expelling the "menagerie" from astronomical atlases belongs to Harding. He published in 1823 a celestial atlas, where only the boundaries of the constellations were plotted.

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In Antarctica. The word "hemisphere" means half a sphere, and since our planet is a sphere (ellipsoid) oblate at the poles, it is divided into two hemispheres.

Due to the large amount of water in the Southern Hemisphere, the climate here is milder than in the Northern Hemisphere. In general, water heats up and cools more slowly than land, so water near any land area tends to have a moderating effect on the climate.

The Southern Hemisphere, like the Northern Hemisphere, is also divided into several different regions based on climate. The most widespread is the Southern Temperate Zone, which runs from the Tropic of Capricorn to the beginning of the Arctic Circle at 66.5 ° south latitude. The area has a temperate climate with high rainfall. cold winter and warm summer. Some countries located in the southern temperate zone include most of Chile, Uruguay, South Africa, all of New Zealand and southern regions of Australia.

The area immediately north of the southern temperate zone, located between the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, known as the tropics, has high temperatures and high rainfall throughout the year.

South of the Arctic Circle is the Antarctic continent. Antarctica, unlike the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, is not heated by the large presence of water because it is a very large land mass. In addition, it is much colder here than in the Arctic in the Northern Hemisphere for the same reason.

Summer in the Southern Hemisphere lasts from December 21 or 22 to the autumnal equinox on March 20. Winter lasts from June 20 or 21 to the spring equinox on September 22 or 23. These dates are due to the tilt of the Earth's axis, which in the period from December 21 (22) to March 20, in the Southern Hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, while during the period from 20 ( 21) June to 22 (23) September, it is tilted away from the Sun.

Coriolis effect in the southern hemisphere

An important component of the physical in the Southern Hemisphere is the Coriolis force and the specific direction in which objects are deflected in the southern half of the Earth. In the Southern Hemisphere, any object moving over and on the Earth's surface is deflected to the left.

Because of this, any large air or water mass south of the equator spins counterclockwise. For example, large ocean currents in the Southern Hemisphere turn counterclockwise. In the northern hemisphere, these directions reverse as all objects lean to the right.

In addition, the left deflection of objects affects the airflow. For example, systems of high atmospheric pressure(anticyclones) in the Southern Hemisphere move counterclockwise due to the Coriolis Effect. On the other hand, low atmospheric pressure systems (cyclones) move clockwise.

population of the southern hemisphere

Map of the distribution of the world's population

Since the Southern Hemisphere has a smaller land area than northern hemisphere, the population here is much smaller (about 800 million people). The majority of the world's population (about 90%) and its largest cities are in the Northern Hemisphere, although there are big cities and in the South, such as Lima (Peru), Cape Town (South Africa), Santiago (Chile) and Auckland (New Zealand).

Antarctica is the largest landmass in the Southern Hemisphere, and the largest on the planet. Despite its large area, the continent is practically undeveloped by people due to the extremely harsh climate. All people in Antarctica are employees of scientific research stations, most of which work only in summer time of the year.

Despite its small population, the Southern Hemisphere is incredibly biologically diverse, as most of the rainforests are found in this half of the Earth. For example, the Amazon rainforest is located almost entirely in the Southern Hemisphere, as are other biologically diverse places such as Madagascar and New Zealand. Antarctica also has a significant diversity of species adapted to the harsh climate, such as emperor penguins, seals, whales, as well as different kinds plants and algae.