Solar radiation world distribution

Ozone is an essential atmospheric trace substance. This gas plays an important role in the control of the radiation and heat balance of the stratosphere since it absorbs solar radiation with wavelengths shorter than about 0.3 jun. An important consequence of this absorption is that U V radiation lethal to living species does not reach the lower layers of the atmosphere. Because of the importance of atmospheric 03, its study started rather early. Junge (1963) mentions that Dobson and his associates measured total ozone (see later) beginning in the twenties by a European network consisting of six stations. Later, this network became world-wide and even the determination of the vertical distribution of 03 is now a routine measurement. Owing to these studies our knowledge of atmospheric ozone is rather substantial compared to that of other trace constituents. 

Solar radiation has an uneven geographic and chronological distribution throughout the world due to solar azimuth, which varies with latitude and season, elevation and atmospheric conditions including cloud cover and pollution. 

GOG Eof, JA Duffie, GO Smith. World Distribution of Solar Radiation. The University of Wisconsin, Madison Engineering Experiment Station, Report No. 21, 1966. 

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