The
Southern Hemisphere or
southern hemisphere is the half of a
planet that's
south of the
equator—the word
hemisphere literally means 'half ball'. It is also that half of the
celestial sphere south of the celestial
equator.
Earth's southern hemisphere contains five
continents (
Antarctica,
Australia, most of
South America, parts of
Africa and of
Asia), and four
oceans (
South Atlantic,
Indian,
South Pacific, and
Southern). Due to the tilt of Earth's rotation relative to the
Sun and the
ecliptic plane,
Summer is
December 21 through
March 21 and
winter is
June 21 through to
September 21.
Geography
Climates in the southern hemisphere tend to be slightly milder than those in the
northern hemisphere. This is because the southern hemisphere has significantly more ocean and less land. Water heats up and cools down more slowly than land. The southern hemisphere is also significantly less polluted than the northern hemisphere because of lower overall
population densities (a total of 10 to 12% of the human population), lower levels of
industrialisation, and smaller
land masses (air currents run mostly west–east so pollution doesn't easily spread north or south).
In the southern hemisphere the sun passes from
east to
west through the
north, although north of the
tropic of Capricorn the
Mean sun can be directly overhead or due south at midday. The sun rotating to the north causes sun-cast shadows to turn
anticlockwise through the day (
sun dials have the hours in reverse). Hurricanes and tropical storms spin
clockwise in the southern hemisphere (as opposed to
counter-clockwise in the
northern hemisphere) due to the
Coriolis effect. A fact often missed is that in the southern hemisphere, the
Moon appears to be upside-down compared to the view from the northern hemisphere, or, for people in the south, the northerners have an upside-down image of it.
The southern
temperate zone, a subsection of the southern hemisphere, is nearly all oceanic. The only countries that lie entirely within this zone are
Uruguay,
Lesotho and
New Zealand. Countries lying partly in the zone are
Chile (most of),
Argentina (most of),
Paraguay,
Brazil,
Namibia,
Botswana,
South Africa (most of),
Mozambique,
Madagascar and
Australia.
The
south pole is oriented towards the
galactic centre and this, combined with clearer skies, makes for excellent viewing of the night sky from the southern hemisphere, with brighter and more numerous stars.
List of continents and countries
Continents
African countries
Entirely
Angola
Botswana
Burundi
Comores
Lesotho
Malawi
Mozambique
Namibia
Rwanda
South Africa
Swaziland
Tanzania
Zambia
ZimbabweMostly
Democratic Republic of Congo
Gabon
Republic of the CongoPartly
Equatorial Guinea
Kenya
Somalia
São Tomé and Príncipe
Uganda
Asian countries
Entirely
East TimorMostly
Indonesia
Indian Ocean countries
Entirely
Madagascar
Mauritius
Seychelles Partly
Maldives
Oceania countries
Entirely
Australia
Cook Islands
Easter Island
Fiji
Nauru
New Zealand
Niue
Papua New Guinea
Pitcairn
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tahiti
Tokelau
Tonga
Tuvalu
VanuatuMostly
Kiribati
South American countries
Entirely
Argentina
Bolivia
Chile
Paraguay
Peru
UruguayMostly
Brazil
EcuadorPartly
Colombia
Other territories
External results
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