Solar insolation

The vertical temperature gradient (the lapse rate) is usually not monitored by routine meteorological observation, and it, too, must be approximated from estimates of solar insolation, solar angle, and differential heating due to uneven cloud cover. For purposes of diffusion analyses, the lapse rate is usually approximated by a constant. 

A careful examination of the curve shown in Fig. 3.49 shows a periodicity of approximately 100,000 years. Hays et al. (1976) argued that the main structure of the oxygen isotope record is caused by variations in solar insolation, promoted by... 

Another 1991 cost estimate was performed by the Bechtel Corporation for the U.S. Department of Energy s (DOE s) Rocky Flats Plant near Boulder, Colorado. Costs were estimated at 40 per 1000 gal for a system in a site with relatively low solar insolation. The estimate was based on a system with a peak water flow of 6.3 liters/sec and an annual treated volume of 8500 gal. The processing costs were dominated by the cost of a system to treat inorganic components of the water (D12953N, p. 203). 

The principal method of characterizing solar-cell performance is the measurement of conversion efficiency while the cell is exposed to 1 sun illumination (—100 mW cm-2). The conversion efficiency is determined by measuring the current - voltage characteristic (see Fig- 8), locating the maximum power point (Pm = JmVm), and also measuring the solar insolation... 

Plot the ground solar insolation as a function of turbidity factor for a solar altitude of 80°. 

A pollution-control enthusiast claims that a certain metropolitan area has such a high concentration of atmospheric contaminants that the solar insolation is attenuated by SO percent. How do you evaluate this claim Assuming a turbidity factor of 4.5, what solar altitude would be necessary to produce the 50 percent attenuation factor ... 

Plot the solar insolation versus solar altitude angle for a smoggy atmosphere having a turbidity factor of (a) 3.5 and (b) 4.5. 

At what solar altitude angle will the solar insolation equal 50 percent of the insolation at the outer limits of the atmosphere when the turbidity factor is 4.0 ... 

What turbidity factor would be necessary to reduce the solar insolation by 50 percent from that of a clear sky at a = 90° ... 

The best way to model a production system is to use actual solar insolation data. Hourly average data are readily available for many sites (National Solar Radiation Database, for example). In two studies, hourly insolation data were used to optimize the production unit size and the storage capacity for dedicated stand-alone systems. If yearly data are used to estimate annual production, at least one other year should be chosen and used to check the analysis. 

In spite of their limitations, the °Th and Pa methods have made an important contribution to the establishment of the Late Pleistocene chronology of deep-sea sediments. They provided the timescale upon which the deep-sea 5 0 record of global ice volume could be correlated with solar insolation, thus providing strong support for the astronomical theory of climate change (Broecker and Van Donk, 1970). 

Speleothems (stalagmites, stalactites, and flow-stones) are producing a tremendous range of reconstructions of different types of paleoclimatic parameters, including many quantitative records. Calcite speleothems display Inminescence, which is produced by calcinm salts of humic and fulvic acids derived from soils above the cave. The luminescence of speleothems depends exponentially on the solar insolation (if soil surface is heated directly by the Sun) or on the air temperature (if the cave is covered by forest or bush). Therefore, luminescence records represent solar insolation or temperature in the past. Luminescence of many speleothems is exhibited by annual bands much like tree rings. Distance between them is a quantitative proxy of annual precipitation in the past. 

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