Nature Photo: Rocks & Trees on Tropical Beach

Tropics

The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately 23° 26? 16? (or 23.4378°) N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at 23° 26? 16? (or 23.4378°) S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth. The tropics are also referred to as the tropical zone and the torrid zone (see geographical zone). The tropics include all the areas on the Earth where the Sun reaches a point directly overhead at least once during the solar year. About 40 percent of the world's human population lives within the tropical zone (by 2008 statistics), and by 2060, 60% of the human population will be in the tropics, owing to high birth rates and migration.

"Tropical" is sometimes used in a general sense for a tropical climate to mean warm to hot and moist year-round, often with the sense of lush vegetation.

Many tropical areas have a dry and wet season. The wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region falls. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are disseminated across portions of the tropics and subtropics. Under the Koppen climate classification, for tropical climates, a wet season month is defined as a month where average precipitation is 60 millimetres (2.4 in) or more. Tropical rainforests technically do not have dry or wet seasons, since their rainfall is equally distributed through the year. Some areas with pronounced rainy seasons will see a break in rainfall mid-season when the intertropical convergence zone or monsoon trough move poleward of their location during the middle of the warm season.

(Source: Wikipedia.org)

Related Free Photos