Doha: The Qatari Calendar House announced that the sun would be completely perpendicular to the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere on Tuesday 17 Jumada Al-Ula 1443 AH; corresponding to December 21, 2021, at 6:53 pm Doha local time.
Astronomer at the Qatari Calendar House Dr. Bashir Marzouk stated that this day would be the shortest for almost all the northern hemisphere residents, including the State of Qatar, while the situation will be opposite for the inhabitants of the southern hemisphere, where the phenomenon of the summer solstice will occur on the same day.
The winter solstice phenomenon is considered one of the important astronomical phenomena as people rely on it along with the rest of the four seasons to know the changes in climate.
The phenomenon of the winter solstice and the rest of the four astronomical seasons (spring, summer, autumn) occur as a result of the rotation of the earth in its orbit around the sun once a year, in addition to the tendency of the axis of the earth at the level of its orbit at an angle of 23.5 degrees.
Dr. Marzouk added that this phenomenon comes after the phenomenon of September equinox, which happened after the virtual movement of the sun gradually continued towards the south after the suns rays are on the equator on the day of September equinox.
He noted that the length of the day became gradually shortens in the northern hemisphere. He said this gradient will reach its peak at the shortest day and longest night on the day of the winter solstice, while the opposite happens on the same day on the southern half of the globe, where the longest day and shortest night on this day on the southern hemisphere.
After the day of the winter solstice, the sun will begin its apparent movement towards the north, as the length of the day will begin to increase. In contrast, the night's length will gradually shorten until night and day are equal on Sunday, March 20, 2022.
