Southern Hemisphere: characteristics, continents, oceans, climate and population. Which countries and which continents are in the Northern Hemisphere, and which ones are in the Southern Hemisphere?

In geography, there is a conventional division of the Earth into hemispheres. In accordance with their location in relation to the equator (dividing line), they are called Northern and Southern. Each hemisphere has its own characteristics.

Hemispheres on the map

The equator encircles the Earth, crossing Eurasia, Africa, and South America. Each of the remaining continents is located entirely in one of the hemispheres: North America- in the North, Australia and Antarctica - in the South.

Comparison

Let's look point by point at what is the difference between the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.

1. Temperature at the poles. Despite its name, the North Pole is less severe than the South Pole. What explains this? The fact that the North Pole zone is the ocean, and the South Pole zone is Antarctica. Water is lower in level and conducts heat, unlike the solid, rising continent.
2. Movement of air masses. In the Southern Hemisphere, emerging cyclones rotate clockwise, and anticyclones rotate in the opposite direction. Air flows in the other hemisphere rotate in the opposite direction.
3. Seasons. While the Northern Hemisphere continues to experience warm weather summer season, in the South people have to survive the winter. And the winter months that are familiar to us are summer on the other half of the globe.
4. Fauna. Each hemisphere has its own unique animals. In Severny you can meet a walrus, polar bear, polar fox. In the South - kangaroos, hummingbirds.
5. Distribution of land and water. The Northern Hemisphere contains vast land masses. This is the majority of the planet's landmass. A significant proportion of the other hemisphere is water.
6. Population size. What is the difference between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere? The fact is that there are immeasurably more inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere. Only 10% of the world's population lives in Yuzhny.
7. Starry sky. In the field of view of people staying in the Northern Hemisphere, there is a set of stars and constellations that is different from the one that is visible to southerners. In particular, in the Northern Hemisphere there is an important landmark, the North Star, and in the opposite hemisphere the Southern Cross has the same significance.

The southern hemisphere has always had a smaller population compared to the northern. It is believed that in the 21st century only about 11% of general population peace.

Despite this, you will find some of the most crowded cities on our planet. Some of them are so big that it is sometimes difficult to imagine.

An interesting fact is that five of the ten largest cities in the southern hemisphere are in, two are in, two are also in, and most surprisingly, only one is in, which is actually the continent with the largest population.

1. Sao Paulo / Brazil. Sao Paulo is now the largest city south of the equator. It is often called the New York of South America. The metropolis is home to 17,900,000 inhabitants. The city is extremely dynamic, and its streets never calm down.

The busiest arteries of São Paulo are full of cars and pedestrians even at small hours of the night.

5. Kinshasa / Democratic Republic of the Congo. More than 9 million people now live in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa.

The city has its own beauty and characteristics, but on the other hand it is an example of what happens when the population grows faster than the ability to build the necessary infrastructure.

Today, large parts of Kinshasa have little developed infrastructure and poor living conditions.

8. Sydney, Australia. The population is 4.5 million inhabitants. It is not only the largest Australian city, but also the largest in the whole of Australia.

10. Johannesburg /. With a population of 3.9 million, Johannesburg is the last of the ten largest metropolitan areas in the southern hemisphere. Named local residents“The City of Eternal Spring”, Johannesburg is dynamic, exciting and beautiful, but also the most dangerous city.

Similar to most major cities in the world, crime is high here and many places are advisable to avoid.

Constellation map
southern hemisphere

Constellations are arbitrarily taken star groups, as they are visible from the earth and completely independent of the actual distances and possible mutual connections of the stars. The division of stars into constellations dates back to ancient times. Most of the constellations handed down to us by the Arabs from the Greeks undoubtedly originated in the primitive pre-Semitic cultures of Mesopotamia. The main place among them is occupied by the zodiac constellations. The themes for the zodiacal constellations were the hoary legends of primitive humanity, ideas about its destinies, and, less often, the personification of astronomical and meteorological phenomena. The most ancient names of constellations were abbreviations for myths.

Astronomer Jan Hevelius

Ptolemy in his work "Almagest" canonized the following 48 ancient constellations, which still bear the name Ptolemy. Zodiac constellations: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. Northern constellations: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Draco, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Perseus, Bootes, Northern Crown, Hercules, Lyra, Swan, Charioteer, Ophiuchus, Serpent, Arrow, Eagle, Dolphin, Foal, Pegasus, Triangle. Southern constellations: Whale, Orion, River, Hare, Canis major, minor, Ship, Hydra, Chalice, Raven, Centaurus, Wolf, Altar, Southern Crown, Southern Fish. Ptolemy did not consider Coma Berenices a separate constellation.

Arab astrologers, in addition to lunar houses, gave various names for individual bright stars. Having become acquainted with the astronomy of the Greeks and translating Ptolemy's Almagest, they changed some of the names according to the positions of the stars in the drawings of the Ptolemaic constellations. In the 12th century, a Latin translation of the Almagest was made from Arabic, and in the 16th century, directly from Greek, based on found manuscripts. The stars of the southern hemisphere, unknown to Greek astronomers, were divided into constellations much later. Some of them were planned by the Arabs.

There is no doubt that the navigators of the 15th and 16th centuries (Vespucci, Corsali, Pigafetta, Peter of Medinsky, Gutman) during their travels to southern seas New constellations were gradually assembled. They were put in order by Peter Dirk Keyser. During his stay on the island of Java (1595), he determined the locations of 120 southern stars and placed constellation figures on them. The following 13 constellations were included, based on Keyser's inventory, in the atlases of Bayer (1603) and Bartsch (1624): Phoenix, Goldfish, Chameleon, Flying Fish, Southern Cross, Water Snake, Fly, Paradise Bird, Southern Triangle, Peacock, Indian, Crane, Toucan. Of these, the Southern Cross was known to Ptolemy and formed part of the Centaurus.

The current names of constellations and stars represent an amalgam of these lists and translations. Ancient drawings of constellations are completely lost. Only distorted figures on Arab globes of the 13th century have reached us; for example, on a globe in the Borghese Museum in Veletri (1225), in the mathematical society in Dresden (1279), in the London astronomical society, etc. At the beginning of the 16th century, the famous Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer drew constellations according to their description by Ptolemy.

Unfortunately, not a single authentic copy of Dürer's drawings has survived. Dürer's drawings, modified by other artists, were reprinted in the star atlases of Bayer (1603), Flamsteed (1729). Then the figures of the constellations of the latest layout appeared. Currently, constellation drawings are no longer printed. The credit for banishing the “menagerie” from astronomical atlases belongs to Harding. He published a celestial atlas in 1823, where only the boundaries of the constellations were plotted.

There are four continents on Earth: Antarctica, America, Afro-Eurasia and Australia. The number of officially recognized continents is six: Africa, Eurasia, South and North America, Antarctica and Australia. There is an opinion that there are not 6, but 7 continents: in the territory inhabited by penguins, around the South Pole with huge blocks of ice there is no life, but many scientists still consider it another continent.

We all went to school, studied geography and know that the equator - the central parallel of the Earth - conditionally divides our Earth to Northern and Southern Hemisphere, each with its own characteristics. Which continents are in the Northern Hemisphere and which ones are in the Southern Hemisphere? After all, it so happens that not all continents belong strictly to one of the two hemispheres: the equator “divides into parts” Africa and Eurasia, as well as South America.

The remaining three continents belong entirely to one or the second of the hemispheres. Therefore, if you are casually asked in which hemisphere the continent of North America is located, then the correct answer will be in the North, while Antarctica and Australia are located in the South.

Comparison

What are the differences between the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere?

What continents are in the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth?

It turns out that the Northern Hemisphere is more civilized, inhabited by almost all the people on the planet and includes almost all of the landmass on Earth.

Eurasia

It is divided by the equator, and its European part belongs to the Northern Hemisphere. As for Asia, all countries except almost all of Indonesia and East Timor belong to this hemisphere.

Reaches more than 54 million square meters, and this is the only continent that is washed by oceans on all sides. Eurasia owes its diversity of relief to its location on 6 tectonic platforms. Here are the most high mountains and most deep lake- Baikal. A third of the population of planet Earth lives in 108 countries of this continent.

North America

This continent is 100% located in the Northern Hemisphere. In total, it includes 23 states.

North America is washed by oceans on all sides, its central part is represented by a plain. The indigenous inhabitants of the mainland are Indians and Eskimos.

South America

It would be interesting to know not only which continents are in the Northern Hemisphere and which are in the Southern Hemisphere, but also which countries are included in them. SA countries such as Venezuela and Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname are located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. As for the partial location, it characterizes countries such as Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador. Po occupies more than 17 million square meters and is washed by the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the area is represented by plateaus and plains. The indigenous people are the Indians.

Africa

Part of which continent is located in the Northern Hemisphere (two-thirds of its territory), and part - in the Southern Hemisphere? This is Africa. The following countries are located entirely there: Algeria and Benin, Gambia and Burkina Faso. Also included are Ghana and Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau and Egypt. Countries such as Western Sahara, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, as well as Liberia, Mauritania and Morocco are also classified as “above the equator”. This also includes Niger, Senegal, Tunisia, Ethiopia and many other countries - they can be seen on Partially in the Northern Hemisphere are Gabon and Uganda, Kenya and Congo, as well as Somalia.

African territory covers more than 30 million square meters and is represented mainly by plains and mountains. It flows here longest river— Nile, the continent is divided into five regions and includes 62 countries.

Oceania

The Marshallese states of Palau, Micronesia, and partially the country of Kiribati are located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere.