(now everywhere on planet earth)

Best wishes on this astronomical vernal equinox, recognized for the first time this year by the United Nations General Assembly (as decided during the meeting of The Inter-governmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage of the United Nations held last September in Abu Dhabi) as the “International Day of Nowruz.” Nowruz (literally “new day”) marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the new year in the Iranian calendar. As well as being a Zoroastrian holiday and having significance amongst those of Persian descent, this day is celebrated throughout the Indian sub-continent as the new year.

Today, the sun can be observed to be directly over the equator, and the north and south poles of earth lie along the solar terminator—as a result, sunlight is divided exactly between the north and south hemispheres (with daylight and nighttime of equal length everywhere). Some great diagrams showing equinox day arcs at various latitudes are shown here.

I’ve posted about Nowruz in previous years here and here.