SOLAR RADIATION

A solar radiation sensor measures solar energy from the sun.

Solar radiation is radiant energy emitted by the sun from a nuclear fusion reaction that creates
electromagnetic energy. The spectrum of solar radiation is close to that of a black body with a
temperature of about 5800 K. About half of the radiation is in the visible short-wave part of the
electromagnetic spectrum. The other half is mostly in the near-infrared part, with some in the
ultraviolet part of the spectrum.

The units of measure are Watts per square meter.

Solar radiation, electromagnetic radiation, including X-rays, ultraviolet and infrared radiation,
and radio emissions, as well as visible light, emanating from the Sun.

The small part of this energy intercepted by Earth (the solar constant, on average 1.4 kilowatts
per square metre) is of enormous importance to life and to the maintenance of natural processes
on Earth’s surface. The energy output of the Sun has its peak at a wavelength of 0.47 micrometre
(0.000019 inch; a micrometre is 10−6 metre), and the Sun radiates about 8 kilowatts per square
cm of its surface.Solar radiation is all of the light and energy that comes from the sun, and there
are many different forms. The electromagnetic spectrum explains the different types of light
waves that are emitted from the sun. Light waves are similar to waves you see on the ocean -
they move up and down and travel from one place to another. The difference is that, instead of
the water vibrating up and down, light waves are vibrations of electromagnetic fields, hence the
name the electromagnetic spectrum.

Direct radiation and Diffuse Radiation and Reflected

Radiation
"Direct radiation" is also sometimes called "beam radiation" or "direct beam radiation". It is
used to describe solar radiation traveling on a straight line from the sun down to the surface of
the earth.
"Diffuse radiation", on the other hand, describes the sunlight that has been scattered by
molecules and particles in the atmosphere but that has still made it down to the surface of the
earth.
Direct radiation has a definite direction but diffuse radiation is just going any which way.
Reflected radiation describes sunlight that has been reflected off of non-atmospheric things
such as the ground. Asphalt reflects about 4% of the light that strikes it and a lawn about 25%.
However, solar panels tend to be tilted away from where the reflected light is going and
reflected radiation rarely accounts for a significant part of the sunlight striking their surface.
SOLAR CONSTANT :

The rate at which energy reaches the earth's surface from the sun, usually taken to be 1,388
watts per square metre.

Solar constant,
the total radiation energy received from the Sun per unit of time per unit
of area on a theoretical surface perpendicular to the Sun’s rays and at Earth’s mean
distance from the Sun. It is most accurately measured from satellites where
atmospheric effects are absent. The value of the constant is approximately 1.366
kilowatts per square metre.
The solar constant, Gsc, is the energy from the sun, per unit time, received on a unit area of surface
perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the radiation at the earth's mean distance from the sun,
if the earth’s the atmosphere is fully transparent. It may be viewed on any unit surface normal to sun’s
rays on a sphere of radius equal to the sun-earth mean distance, thus alleviating the difficulty in
imagining a fully transparent atmospherte around the earth. The recently reported value of the solar
constant is 1367 W/m2 . The physical idea can be obtained by considering the sun to be a sphere of
diameter 1.39 x 109 m, emitting as a black body at an effective temperature of 5762 K.