this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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Forgive me if I'm just missing a joke, but it's not about the distance, it's about the angle. In the summer the angle means the days are longer, and sunlight travels through less atmosphere (and is therefore less attenuated) before it reaches you and gives you sunburn.
No, it's not the angle. The sun's orbit isn't exactly symetrical, it's a bit lopsided. In January the sun is about 5% closer to earth.
In the Northern hemisphere this is during winter, so it's the best of both worlds. In Australia though it's the reverse. We get extra dim winters and extra bright summers.
Ah, thank you for the clarification! I hadn't realised that the eccentricity of Earth's orbit made an appreciable difference, but apparently yeah, especially at the equator: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pclm.0000436
The 7% difference in insolation between perihelion and ahelion (a figure I've seen mentioned in multiple places) seems like it would be significant for sunburn and skin cancer, at least at the population level.
I found an ABC article that doesn't specifically say the 7% figure, but mentions perihelion as a factor in 10% higher UV in Australia. It downplays the role that extra 10% plays in our melanoma rates, though, and I suppose that's fair, I don't think anyone's getting caught out by burning 10% faster, because they would have gone inside 10% sooner if they had known, haha
source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-02-04/sun-summer-uv-sunburn-skin-cancer-australia-ozone-layer/104870806