solar radiation

Table of Contents

Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Figure 1: Average exchange of energy between the surface, atmosphere, and space, as percentages of incident solar radiation (1 unit = 3.4 watts per square metre).

See how differing amounts of solar radiation at the poles and Equator affect Earth's climate and atmosphere

Know how painting the roofs white help cool the buildings and its environmental benefits

Read Next

$Light refraction image with a cube. Prism$

How Is Light Both a Particle and a Wave?

Hot-air balloon against a sky (clouds, hot air ballooning, recreation)

Why Is the Sky Blue?

Discover

VAN, TURKEY - OCTOBER 25: A building and car ruined during the earthquake of Van-Ercis on October 25, 2011 in Van, Turkey. It is 604 killed and 4152 injured in Van-Ercis Earthquake.

What Is an Aftershock?

Queen Elizabeth II addresses at opening of Parliament. (Date unknown on photo, but may be 1958, the first time the opening of Parliament was filmed.)

All 119 References in “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” Explained

Mona Lisa, oil on wood panel by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503-06; in the Louvre, Paris, France. 77 x 53 cm.

Why Is the Mona Lisa So Famous?

The Sun Was Eaten: 6 Ways Cultures Have Explained Eclipses

Still from the film Deliverance, 1919. The story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. View shows Keller in the cockpit/front seat of an airplane.

How Did Helen Keller Fly a Plane?

9 of the World’s Deadliest Spiders

Pluto. The Changing Faces of Pluto. Most detailed view to date of the entire surface of the dwarf planet Pluto, as constructed from multiple NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken from 2002 to 2003.

10 Important Dates in Pluto History

Science & Tech

solar radiation

Written by Harold Zirin

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Mar 22, 2024 • Article History

Category: Science & Tech

Key People:: Charles Greeley Abbot; John Tyndall

Related Topics:: solar energy; sunlight; stratospheric sulfur injection; cloud whitening; Milankovitch cycles

On the Web:: National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Solar and Ultraviolet Radiation (Mar. 22, 2024)

See all related content →

solar radiation, electromagnetic radiation, including X-rays, ultraviolet and infrared radiation, and radio emissions, as well as visible light, emanating from the Sun. Of the 3.8 × 10³³ ergs emitted by the Sun every second, about 1 part in 120 million is received by its attendant planets and their satellites. 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 (see also sunlight). 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.

Harold Zirin