21 June 2013 Happy Solstice!

Depending on which hemisphere you are in, it's the summer solstice or the winter solstice. The solstice occurs two times a year. Summer solstice, which most of you reading this are enjoying, is when the sun reaches its highest point relative to earth and the day is the longest one in the year. Winter solstice, the opposite. The shortest day and the sun is lowest from our point of view.

Where does it get its name? You got it, think word roots. If you know Spanish you got half of it. Sol = sun. That's the Latin root too. Sistere is the Latin word for stand. The winter solstice is often marked by celebration in many cultures and down on the ice it's no different. The Mid-Winter feast and festivities abound. We have some fantastic cooks on station. My goal is to be able to still fit in all of my clothes when I leave here.

After lunch we had a solstice plunge - into the rather chilly waters. The air temp was 23 F. Water? 28 F. Remember, saltwater freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water. The plunge into the water most definitely takes your breath away, but believe it or not, you feel great afterwards. This was followed by an amazing mid-winter feast of roast pig, homemade sushi, actually homemade everything from ice cream to chicken curry puffs, and peach cobbler. All followed by an evening of fun into the night actually began shortly after our swim.

While we had very little daylight down here, way up north there is nothing but light. Check out the solstice blog of PolarTREC teacher, Alicia Gillean. She has one about the land of the midnight sun http://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/arctic-ground-squirrel-studies/journals/2013-06-21. Also check out this cool website that she found to explain the earth's tilt and the seasons. http://polardiscovery.whoi.edu/poles/seasons.html

So if the solstice marks the onset of summer and winter. What is the event called that marks the onset of spring and fall? You might be able to figure it out through deductive reasoning. If summer is longest and winter is shortest, the other two are more equally divided between light and dark. Think of a prefix for equal... equi. Root referring to night and day... nox. Equinox - the night and day are roughly the same.