Why do countries next to the equator have a warm climate?
The Sun, in its seasonal movement through the sky, passes directly over the equator twice each year, on the March and September equinoxes. At the equator, the rays of the sun are perpendicular to the surface of the earth on these dates. The equator is one of the five main circles of latitude that are based on the relationship between the Earth’s axis of rotation and the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the sun. It is the only line of latitude which is also a great circle. The imaginary circle obtained when the Earth’s equator is projected onto the sky is called the celestial equator. Places on the equator experience the quickest rates of sunrise and sunset in the world. Such places also have a constant 12 hours of day and night throughout the year, while north or south of the equator day length increasingly varies with the seasons.
