Calculated by the lab
- Solar declination from orbit and tilt
- Illuminated hemisphere geometry
🙃 Tip it on its side
Set Earth's axial tilt to 90 degrees and watch the illumination geometry change.
The seasonal lighting is visible; seasonal climate is not computed.
Building the laboratory: star, orbit, planet, atmosphere...
What actually happens
Uranus rotates with an axial tilt near 98 degrees, perhaps after a giant collision early in its history. A highly tilted planet presents its poles toward its star at different parts of the orbit and can experience extreme seasonal illumination.
This scenario sets the simulated Earth's tilt to 90 degrees. The axis, solar declination, terminator, and orbit lighting respond to that geometry as simulated time advances.
The climate solver still computes a global average and does not use tilt to calculate regional or annual temperatures. The familiar latitude temperature pattern is not replaced by a seasonal climate model.
How the simulation unfolds
Each step is labeled so you can tell a calculated result from an explanatory visual or wider scientific context.
- Changed input
Tip the axis to 90 degrees
The rotation axis is placed in the orbital plane instead of near upright.
- Computed
Solar declination shifts
Orbital position and axial tilt determine the direction of incoming light and the terminator.
- Illustrated
The poles trade sunlight
Orbit and planet views show the changing axis and illuminated hemisphere.
- Scientific context
Climate response is more complex
Real high-obliquity seasons depend on heat storage and transport that this global model does not include.
What is computed, illustrated, and not modeled
Shown to explain the result
- Tilted axis
- Moving terminator through the orbit
Outside this model
- Regional seasons
- Annual-average polar temperature
- Atmosphere and ocean heat transport
Model scope: Tilt affects the lighting geometry, not the simulator's regional temperature field or annual climate.