The Earth reaches Perihelion January 4th at 13:22 UTC. The Earth’s annual orbit around the solar system will carry it to its closest point to the Sun, at a distance of 0.9833 AU. The Earth’s distance from the Sun varies by around 3% over the course of the year because its orbit is slightly oval-shaped, following a path called an ellipse. In practice, this variation is rather slight, however, because the Earth’s orbit is very nearly circular. Technically speaking, this marks the moment when the Sun appears larger in the sky than at any other time of year, and when the Earth receives the most radiation from it. Importantly this time frame around Perihelion is where space weather reaches the Earth approximately 2 days, the average is generally 2.5 days and around 3 days at Aphelion which takes place 6 months after the Perihelion date (July 4th)
Above are the Earthquakes around perihelion since 1996, note the symmetry with large quakes when we get a planetary alignment during this time frame. Information and template accessed via www.solarwatcher.net (Newsletters)
