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The average annual solar radiation arriving at the top of the Earth's atmosphere is about 1361 W/m 2. This represents the power per unit area of solar irradiance across the spherical surface surrounding the Sun with a radius equal to the distance to the Earth (1 AU).
The angular diameter of the Earth as seen from the Sun is approximately 1/11,700 radians (about 18 arcseconds), meaning the solid angle of the Earth as seen from the Sun is approximately 1/175,000,000 of a steradian. Thus the Sun emits about 2.2 billion times the amount of radiation that is caught by Earth, in other words about 3.846×10 26 watts.
However, the seasonal and latitudinal distribution and intensity of solar radiation received at Earth's surface does vary. [28] The effect of Sun angle on climate results in the change in solar energy in summer and winter. For example, at latitudes of 65 degrees, this can vary by more than 25% as a result of Earth's orbital variation. Because ...
[28] [42] Lockwood and Fröhlich, 2007, found "considerable evidence for solar influence on the Earth's pre-industrial climate and the Sun may well have been a factor in post-industrial climate change in the first half of the last century", but that "over the past 20 years, all the trends in the Sun that could have had an influence on the Earth ...
The sun's surface was covered in active sunspot regions, which produce space weather that impacts Earth. The PHI instrument team used 25 images captured over four hours to create full-disc images ...
The Solar Orbiter, which launched in February 2020, imaged the sun's surface from less than 46 million miles away – or about halfway between the sun and Earth. All taken within about four hours ...
For example, with an axial tilt is 23°, and at a latitude of 45°, then the summer's peak sun angle is 68° (giving sin(68°) = 93% insolation at the surface), while winter's least sun angle is 22° (giving sin(22°) = 37% insolation at the surface). Thus, the greater the axial tilt, the stronger the seasons' variations at a given latitude.
As if the winter darkness doesn't present its own health challenges in a non-pandemic year, a recent study suggests that the sun's lack of intensity in the coldest months of this year might also ...