In summer, the Northern Hemisphere gets 24 hours of sunlight, because the axis is tilted towards the sun. But how come, even with the 24 hours of sunlight, is the North Pole still colder than areas that only get 10 hours of sunlight?
In: Earth Science
Because the sun is very low in the sky (relative).
Get a ball and shine a torch on it above the equator – the light is more intense at the midpoint than at the poles, thus it warms up quicker.
Exactly what the other people said, but I want to add the atmosphere is very important as well. During winter in the northern hemisphere, the sun is actually closer than during the summer. The reason for the cold lies in the amount of atmosphere that sunlight has to pass through, due to angle change from the earths rotation. During the summer (northern hemisphere) the sun is furthest, but since it is directly overhead the area (90°) it only passes through minimal atmosphere. However, when you face away from the sun (winter in northern hemisphere, North Pole, South Pole) the sunlight has substantially more atmosphere to pass through hitting it at an angle of 15-20°. So even though the sun is closer/shining for longer, the atmosphere is absorbing/reflecting most of the energy, due to the change in direction of sunlight.
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