Effect of axial tilt on a planet

[Desdichado]

Axial tilt will effect the length of the DAYS. During summer, you will have fewer hours of night, during winter fewer hours of daylight.

Ooh, hey, good point. I had forgotten that too.

 

[Hand of Evil]

a slight hyjack - something some may find interesting: http://www.earthbrowser.com/index.html

 

[Desdichado]

Well, you're going to see more storms. Especially in the spring and autumn.

For transportation you'd likely see fewer catamarans and light craft in favor of blukier ships.

I know you're a big flying island guy, I would imagine stronger wind currents would affect these as well.

Eh, for this setting, I'm thinking more of a Mars-like cold desert setting. Very little surface water at all.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Eh, for this setting, I'm thinking more of a Mars-like cold desert setting. Very little surface water at all.

Fair enough. Still, you'd see lots of windmills.

Maybe some kind of wheeled desert windsurfer thing too.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Thinking some on it, you may get up to a doubling of your seasons: spring, warming, dry, hot, cool down, harvest, fall, winter - this would tilt and orbit around the sun.

Does not Profantasy's software handle this?

 

[GuardianLurker]

Yep. More extreme seasons - up to a point. Too much and you get no real seasons at all.

Axial tilt also determines climate bands -
Tropics = Equator -> Equator + tilt (23.5 S -> 23.5 N on Earth)
Subtropics = Tropics -> Tropics + 1/2 tilt (35.25 S > 23.5 S, 23.5 N > 35.25 N)
Temperate = Subtropics -> Subarctic (54.75 S > 35.25S, 35.25N > 54.75 N)
Subartic = Arctic - 1/2 tilt -> Arctic ( 66.5 S > 54.75, 54.75 > 66.5)
Arctic = Pole - tilt -> Pole (90 S > 66.5 S, 66.5 N > 90 N)

[Note that these are a layman's approximations; real climatologists use different break points.]

You get more extreme weather up to the point where those bands start crossing, then things get confusing. It also matters what plane the tilt is in - Earth's is essentially in line with its orbit, and it'd be very different if it was essentially in line with its orbital radius.

 

[JimAde]

Axial tilt will effect the length of the DAYS. During summer, you will have fewer hours of night, during winter fewer hours of daylight.

And for the same reason your "extreme arctic circles" will be bigger. That is, the area that has half a year of light followed by half a year of dark will extend farther toward the equator.

 

[SWBaxter]

Right -- and so a steeper axial tilt will mean that the summer hemisphere is getting even more direct sunlight than on our world, resulting in more extreme seasonal differences.

I presume. Is that the only different, though?

As JimAde says, the polar area that has no sun for a period of the winter and extended daylight for a period of the summer will be much larger. With enough of a tilt, you can have a large area that's basically a land of eternal night, good place to store all those unsightly undead.

 

[Miln]

I hope this is not too much of a thread hijack, but...

What would a world be like with a perfectly circular orbit and no axial tilt?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

What would a world be like with a perfectly circular orbit and no axial tilt?

Boring.

Minimal weather patterns, pretty much the whole planet would have an even day-night cycle. Take out the moon and you don't even have to worry about tides and volcanos. So, this is the option you'd go with if you want an excuse not to worry about any of those things.