Talk:Effect of Sun angle on climate

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Also: Insolation. William M. Connolley 23:50, 6 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sunlight reflection

How about the amount of solar energy that is reflected? That amount should be lower at a higher angle right, thus allowing more solar energy to reach the ground closer to ecuator? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.255.186.55 (talk) 17:13, 10 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This effect is included on some websites, but not in the most reliable sources. It is unclear how significant this effect actually is. On average, 19% of insolation is absorbed by cloud, but this energy is not lost. Only 6% of insolation on average is reflected back into space by the atmosphere, and perhaps the lower angle of incidence reduces the 4% that is normally reflected back into space by the earth's surface. I haven't found a website that discusses this in detail in relation to the seasons. PhysicalGeography.net has some detail, but doesn't discuss seasonal effects. The claim of a seasonal atmosphere effect has been removed. Dbfirs 12:12, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A couple of observations

An observation for User:Michael Hardy who originated this article. You talk of a sunbeam one mile wide. Note that this width is a first order (linear) measure. You next say that "One sunbeam one mile wide falls upon the ground at a 90°-angle, and another at a 30°-angle. The one at a shallower angle covers twice as much [second order measure] area with the same amount of light."

Now, I presume that your sunbeams are things which exist within three-dimensional space and, as such, have a cross-sectional area, else you'd not have used the term "area" in your comment. Then, in fact, the one at the shallower angle of 30° will cover the same area with 1/4 the light, not one half. As you probably know, rigorously, this is not even true. It would be more correct to say that the beam at a 30° angle will cover an area 4 times as large with the same amount of light. Of course, I stand to be corrected.

Finally, are you linking from another article to this one? I sincerely hope so since I think it's exceedingly unlikely that someone will hit upon this title in a search. — Dave 00:00, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You're mistaken about 1/4 versus 1/2. If we imagine the sun shining from the south at noon, the north-south width doubles; the east-west width does not.

As far as links go: just click on "what links here". Michael Hardy 00:09, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You're correct, of course. Thanks for tuning me up. — Dave 02:03, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure if it is applicable, but sunbeams are much larger then 1 mile wide, so wouldn't the angle not matter since sunbeam would be wider then earth anyways? 65.167.146.130 (talk) 19:39, 21 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

TITLE ?!?

Why this title ??? Is this Wikibooks ? -- 212.144.195.66 21:11, 14 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Please suggest a better title if you can. Michael Hardy 21:36, 14 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Some numbers would be good

I'm wondering if someone has suitable numbers, or a graph, showing the relationship between J/level m^2 and peak W/level m^2 against latitude. Naively, we would expect it to just be cos(lat), but things like day length and atmospheric scattering might make a significant difference?

The insolation page claims 1kW/level m^2 peak, but that seems to be a very rough approximation.--njh 00:51, 20 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wouldn't the amount of daylight hours due to the tilt of the earth's axis also have an effect on climate?

75.28.132.222 08:53, 26 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. That is a separate topic from that of this article, but perhaps an appropriate link should appear if some other article treats that. Michael Hardy 20:22, 26 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

superficial

This is an extremely superficial article; doesn't really say anything useful. Possibly we should just merge it into some other article? Geoffrey.landis (talk) 18:39, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Now that it is even shorter, should it just be merged into the Season article from which it is linked? Dbfirs 12:14, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This article needs a better title.

At the very least it should be "Effect of sunlight angle on climate"...After all, it's not the sun that is angled, but the light that comes from it that is angled. BootitooB (talk) 08:40, 13 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]