Solar constant

About: Solar constant is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 967 publications have been published within this topic receiving 29647 citations.

Bias in a solar constant determination by the Langley method due to structured atmospheric aerosol.

Abstract: The vertical distribution of the atmospheric aerosol generally differs from the vertical distribution of the molecular atmosphere. The resulting differences in the optical air masses of the aerosol and molecular constituents lead to a bias error in the solar constant inferred by the Langley method. This bias error was calculated for three characteristic aerosol height distributions, and it was found that this error becomes more significant when solar observations taken at large zenith angles are included in the Langley analysis. The bias error is not a sensitive function of wavelength or of the seasonal variation of the molecular atmosphere. Volcanic aerosol injected into the lower stratosphere can lead to large bias errors. These can be reduced significantly by using lidar to provide relatively crude measurements of the vertical distribution of the aerosol extinction coefficient.

Preliminary spectroradiometric measurements of solar constant

Abstract: Spectroradiometric measurements of the distribution of direct solar radiation at Sunspot, New Mexico (altitude 9,200 feet), in June 1955 are described. Detailed spectral data were obtained within the spectral range of 299 to 535 millimicrons for different air masses. At longer wavelengths radiant-energy evaluations were made only for selected points between the water-absorption bands. From these data, supplemented by other measurements and estimates for radiantenergy intensities for very short and very long wavelengths, a preliminary spectral integration of the total solar intensity yields a solar constant in general agreement with the best published values.

Possible Bounds on the Earth's Surface Temperature: From the Perspective of a Conceptual Global-Mean Model

Abstract: A global-mean model is used here to elucidate possible bounds on the surface temperature of a simplified ocean–atmosphere system. Extending previous one-dimensional models, it has included as internal variables the low-level and high-level cloud covers and the turbulent wind at the surface. The main hypothesis for the model closure is that the conversion rate from the solar to the kinetic energy—or, equivalently, the rate of internal entropy production—is maximized, which has been applied with considerable success in past latitudinal models. From the model derivation, it is found that the surface temperature is narrowly bounded below by the onset of the greenhouse effect and above by the rapid increase of the saturation vapor pressure. Because both are largely intrinsic properties of water, the resulting surface temperature is mostly insensitive to detailed balances or changing external conditions. Even with a 50% change of the solar constant from its present-day value, the model temperature has ...

Long term variations in the albedo and surface temperature of the Earth

Abstract: THE surface temperature of the Earth depends primarily on the solar constant, the Earth's albedo and the total mass and chemical composition of the terrestrial atmosphere. Studies of climate covering the past few million years have generally allowed for variations in albedo in calculating average values of the surface temperature. But over longer periods of time, however, less allowance has been made for albedo variations; it has, indeed, frequently been assumed that the albedo, when averaged over a long enough time, can be taken to be constant (see ref. 1). We wish to point out that, on the contrary, long term variations in the albedo can be expected to occur, and to produce significant changes in the average surface temperature.