Muscat: The winter solstice for 2024 will take place on Saturday in Oman, signifying the onset of winter in the northern hemisphere.
This astronomical event will commence at 1:20 PM, resulting in the longest night and the shortest day of the year.
Wissal bint Salem Al Hinaai, Vice President of the Community Outreach Committee at the Oman Astronomical Society, informed the Oman News Agency that Sunday will experience the least amount of daylight, with sunrise in Muscat occurring at 6:44 AM and sunset at 5:25 PM Oman time, leading to a total daylight duration of 10 hours and 41 minutes.
The winter season will extend for 88 days, 23 hours, and 40 minutes. Al Hinaai elaborated that the winter solstice is a result of the tilt of the Earth's axis in relation to its orbit around the sun. With the Earth tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees, the northern and southern hemispheres receive sunlight alternately.
A prevalent misconception is that the seasons are influenced by the Earth's distance from the sun. In reality, the Earth is closest to the sun (perihelion) during the winter months of the northern hemisphere, demonstrating that the coldness of winter is attributed to the angle of solar rays rather than distance.
During this event, the sun reaches its southernmost position in the sky, with the North Pole tilted away from the sun. Consequently, not all regions of the Earth experience sunrise and sunset on the winter solstice.
For instance, areas north of the Arctic Circle will not see the sun rise above the horizon throughout the day, while regions south of the Antarctic Circle will experience continuous daylight, a phenomenon referred to as the midnight sun.
The winter solstice is characterized by the sun rising from the southeastern horizon and following a low trajectory across the sky, resulting in the longest shadows of the year.
This event occurs after the autumnal equinox in September, when the sun's apparent path begins to shift southward after being aligned with the equator.
In the northern hemisphere, this gradual reduction in daylight leads to the shortest day and longest night of the year on the winter solstice, while the reverse is true for the southern hemisphere.
Al Hinaai pointed out that the Earth exhibits two primary motions: it rotates on its axis from west to east every 24 hours, creating the cycle of day and night, and it orbits the sun every 365.25 days, which gives rise to the four seasons.
She observed that during the winter solstice, the sun appears to rise from the same southern point for several consecutive days before it begins its northward ascent again, a result of the Earth's orbit around the sun.
This pattern continues until the hours of day and night are equal at the spring equinox on March 20, 2025.
