The follow animation is from space. It shows how the northern hemisphere (top half of the earth) goes through the seasons. As the earth rotates around the sun and the earth is tilting away from the sun,snow begins to show up. Then melts as the earth continues around the sun toward summer. The earth is tilting toward the sun during the summer.

Click the picture to watch an animation on the seasons. You can interact with it to get a better understanding of the earth's seasons.

Click here for an advanced animation of the seasons. You can change the way you watch the animation by clicking on the different buttons. To start the animation look in the bottom right corner for the start button.