Eli5: why is the sun so much brighter and unforgiving in the winter even though it’s so much colder compared to summer?
In: Planetary Science
The sun is only very slightly brighter in the northern hemisphere winter. However, there are many less leaves on trees, so more of the sky is unshaded; AND the angle of the Sun is lower, so it causes more glare.
Couple of things can contribute to this:
* Snow is very reflective. It can bounce a lot of sunlight back at you that normally gets absorbed by the grass or dirt or pavement or manure or whatever else is on the ground near you.
* The sun doesn’t get as high in the sky during the winter. At a lower angle, it’s shining more directly into your eyes.
* If you live in the Northern hemisphere, remember that the Earth is closest to the sun in January (though not by a huge margin).
the sun is closer in the winter months…
aim a flashlight at the wall, walk closer to the wall light gets stonger but is confined to a smaller space… walk away from the wall the light gets dimmer but has a much larger space on the wall.
the flashlight is the sun and the wall is planet earth in this analogy
Generally winter means snow and all of that white snow reflects a lot of light. A lot more light than green grass does. This is why eye protection is important for winter sports like skiing and snowboarding
Maybe colder, drier air has less moisture and less water to diffuse the light. Warmer humid air blocks more light?
Albedo. The albedo (reflectance of sunlight) of new snow can be up to 95%. So you have almost as much sun bouncing back up to you as is coming from above.
I live in Arizona – the Sun is WAY less forgiving in summer here. It is painfully bright most days.
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