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The diffuse solar irradiance of slopes under cloudless skies
Author(s) -
Steven M. D.,
Unsworth M. H.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49710544507
Subject(s) - irradiance , radiance , solar irradiance , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , range (aeronautics) , radiation , remote sensing , meteorology , optics , geology , physics , materials science , composite material
The diffuse irradiance of slopes relative to the diffuse irradiance of a horizontal surface is calculated by integrating the mean radiance distributions of cloudless skies in Britain for a wide range of solar elevations, azimuths and slope angles. There is reasonable agreement with measurements reported from a number of stations; discrepancies are probably due to errors in measurements and to the influence of aerosol on the radiance distributions. A simple model of the diffuse irradiance of slopes, which takes account of circumsolar radiation, is proposed, and agrees well with integrated values of irradiance.