# Is there a date and or time when all of Earths landmass has the sun up? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 2, 2019, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-date-and-or-time-when-all-of-earths-landmass-has-the-sun-up/841140 "2019-10-02T08:49:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-date-and-or-time-when-all-of-earths-landmass-has-the-sun-up/841140/21 "2019-10-02T17:13:12Z")
An equivalent question is “can you turn a globe so all you see is water”. The answer is no, but take a look at the globe at [this site](https://www.echalk.co.uk/Science/physics/solarSystem/InteractiveEarth/interactiveEarth.html). It’s not _that_ far off. There is certainly an angle where 90+% of the visible earth is ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-date-and-or-time-when-all-of-earths-landmass-has-the-sun-up/841140/22 "2019-10-02T17:29:40Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > That’s what I imagined. But is the maximum land area of Antarctica illuminated on just one day of the year? Good point. If we move away from the December solstice, we stop wasting daylight on the southern Pacific Ocean and put mire of it on northern Asia. Here’s [late October,](https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunearth.html?iso=20191027T0648) which looks to have a good bit more land lit up. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-date-and-or-time-when-all-of-earths-landmass-has-the-sun-up/841140/23 "2019-10-02T17:36:05Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > Have you been looking at maps without **New Zealand**? > > We are the _antipodes_ - on the absolute other side of the globe from Europe. Unless you count reflected moonlight, we cannot see the sun when Europeans do. And (I might add) it’s basically the same for our Australian cousins (may they fumble the ball and knock on). > > Stop looking at flat projections and look at a globe with a torch. I believe to [atmospheric refraction](https://www.hko.gov.hk/m/article_e.htm?title=ele_00493) the sun can appear 50 minutes higher on the horizon than its actual position So land masses can be up to 181 deg 40 min apart and see the sun at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-date-and-or-time-when-all-of-earths-landmass-has-the-sun-up/841140/24 "2019-10-02T20:12:16Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > For the record, this isn’t true. The area of the Pacific Ocean is about 162 million square kilometers, while the total surface area of the Earth is 510 million square kilometers. So the Pacific is 31% of the Earth’s area, which is a lot less than “a little less than half.” That’s true when you look at surface area, but in terms of longitude, the OP’s claim that the Pacific covers a little less than half of the Earth isn’t that far off. The easternmost point of mainland China along the East China Sea is at about 122 degrees east; the westernmost point of the West Coast of the contiguous United States is at about 124 degrees west. That gives you a longitudinal span between these two points of 114 degrees, which is less than half the circumference of the Earth. You can turn the globe on [Google Earth](https://www.google.de/maps/@-4.3138241,-177.711502,3.06z) such that both points are within view at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-date-and-or-time-when-all-of-earths-landmass-has-the-sun-up/841140/25 "2019-10-02T21:44:01Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I believe to [atmospheric refraction](https://www.hko.gov.hk/m/article_e.htm?title=ele_00493) the sun can appear 50 minutes higher on the horizon than its actual position It is true atmospheric refraction extends the amount of earth from which the sun is visible. Also, the sun is quite visibly not a point source. This adds a little more than 30 minutes of arc as well. But still, in 2019, there’s sufficient landmass distributed across the globe that there is never a date and time when the sun is visible from every bit of land, even after excluding tiny Pacific Ocean atolls. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-date-and-or-time-when-all-of-earths-landmass-has-the-sun-up/841140/26 "2019-10-02T22:10:10Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Logically, there has to be one second of one minute of one day each year in which the largest amount of landmass receives direct sunlight. Does anyone know when that is? It doesn’t answer this question, since the sun never reaches zenith at that location; but the center of the [land hemisphere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_and_water_hemispheres) seems to be somewhere close to Nantes, France. ---
**Author:** ![Delayed\_Reflex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/delayed_reflex/32/3172_2.png) [@Delayed\_Reflex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delayed_Reflex)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-date-and-or-time-when-all-of-earths-landmass-has-the-sun-up/841140/27 "2019-10-02T22:11:07Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > An equivalent question is “can you turn a globe so all you see is water”. > > The answer is no, but take a look at the globe at [this site](https://www.echalk.co.uk/Science/physics/solarSystem/InteractiveEarth/interactiveEarth.html). It’s not _that_ far off. There is certainly an angle where 90+% of the visible earth is ocean. Though on top of that, you have to ask whether that angle is one that is possible to be facing away from the sun at any point in the year. > [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > I’ll wager it’s sometime close to the December solstice, since 100% of Antarctica is lit up. After that, it’d take a computer model to track the % of landmass illuminated at any time during a 24-hour cycle to find the moment of maximum illuminated land area. Absent that, I’ll wager it’s a time that lights up most of Africa, Asia, and Australia, something like this. Except that Antarctica + Australia combined have lower area than North + South America, and the times you linked (including in October) have both Americas in the dark. So my guess is that summer solstice might be better. The website you linked is pretty neat - seems like you can get pretty much all of the Americas and continental eurasia lit up at once (~[11:15 UTC in June](https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunearth.html?iso=20200621T1112)), but not sure if that actually corresponds to maximum land lit - there may be some optimizing to increase lighting in Antarctica at the expense of the fringes of Alaska/Russia. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-date-and-or-time-when-all-of-earths-landmass-has-the-sun-up/841140/28 "2019-10-03T03:14:40Z")
The above illustrates the effects of refraction pretty well since the E Asia/S America antipodes are _both_ (barely) lit. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-date-and-or-time-when-all-of-earths-landmass-has-the-sun-up/841140/29 "2019-10-03T16:06:08Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > The above illustrates the effects of refraction pretty well since the E Asia/S America antipodes are _both_ (barely) lit. While refraction might play a role, you should also note that the sun isn’t actually a point source: it covers an angular width of about 0.5 degrees. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2019, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-date-and-or-time-when-all-of-earths-landmass-has-the-sun-up/841140/30 "2019-10-03T16:54:58Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > While refraction might play a role, you should also note that the sun isn’t actually a point source: it covers an angular width of about 0.5 degrees. Any usable sunrise/sunset calculator must account for both atmospheric refraction and the diameter of the sun, which will cause it to occur when the centre of the sun’s disk is about 50 minutes of arc below the horizon. Parallax is small and can be ignored, unlike the case of the moon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-date-and-or-time-when-all-of-earths-landmass-has-the-sun-up/841140.md?page=1)