Good drawing of Earth's orbit for model? Possibly vector file?

  • Context: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter LightningInAJar
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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on creating a 3D printable model of Earth's orbit around the Sun, segmented by months and incorporating relative local weather data such as temperature and rainfall. Earth's orbit is an almost-circular ellipse with an eccentricity of approximately 0.0167, resulting in less than 2% deviation from a perfect circle, making a circular approximation visually sufficient for most graphical purposes. The primary driver of seasonal weather variations is the 23.4° axial tilt (obliquity of the ecliptic), not the orbital eccentricity. Accurate positioning along the orbit can be referenced using the vernal equinox as 0° longitude, with months mapped accordingly. Tools like Mathematica and data from NOAA and NASA were used to analyze Earth-Sun distances and local temperature correlations, confirming that orbital shape has minimal visual impact compared to axial tilt and local weather variability.

PREREQUISITES

  • Understanding of Earth's orbital mechanics and eccentricity (e.g., apsis, perihelion, aphelion)
  • Knowledge of Earth's axial tilt and its effect on seasons (obliquity of the ecliptic)
  • Familiarity with polar coordinate systems and celestial reference points (vernal equinox)
  • Basic skills in 3D modeling and data visualization tools such as Mathematica or CAD software

NEXT STEPS

  • Explore NOAA and NASA datasets for historical daily Earth-Sun distances and local weather data
  • Learn to convert orbital parameters into polar coordinates for accurate Earth positioning
  • Investigate 3D modeling techniques to represent variable thickness based on weather metrics
  • Study the use of celestial reference frames, particularly the vernal equinox, for aligning orbital models

USEFUL FOR

3D modelers, educators, and data visualization specialists aiming to create accurate and informative representations of Earth's orbit and seasonal weather variations. Also valuable for astronomers and climate scientists interested in correlating orbital mechanics with local weather data for educational or analytical purposes.

  • #31
IMO, a lot of this thread is about scales and ignoring an important point. The correlation between temperature and distance, shown in @renormalize 's post #21 is the opposite of a logical, direct, cause-effect correlation. The temperature is high when the distance is great. The reason for this is that the real cause-effect at that location is between the tilt of the Earth axis versus temperature. Then the relationship between the axis tilt and the distance makes the distance/temperature correlation wrong.
Before worrying about the scales, the effect of axis tilt should be removed. For a location on the Equator, that effect is zero. For a location off the Equator, a statistical analysis might be required. That might be a tricky statistical problem.
The problem of scales is still there, and important, but I would worry about that later.
 
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  • #32
FactChecker said:
IMO, a lot of this thread is about scales and ignoring an important point. The correlation between temperature and distance, shown in @renormalize 's post #21 is the opposite of a logical, direct, cause-effect correlation.
Indeed, but I guess you must have skipped reading the posts that addressed that if you think it was ignored.
 

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