News tagged with solar radiation
Quantum dots with built-in charge boost solar cell efficiency by 50%
(PhysOrg.com) -- For the past few years, researchers have been using quantum dots to increase the light absorption and overall efficiency of solar cells. Now, researchers have taken a step further, demonstrating ...
May 13, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (21) |
13
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Climatic effects of a solar minimum
An abrupt cooling in Europe together with an increase in humidity and particularly in windiness coincided with a sustained reduction in solar activity 2800 years ago. Scientists from the German Research Centre for Geosciences ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 06, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (13) |
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New technology uses solar UV to disinfect drinking water
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Purdue University researchers has invented a prototype water-disinfection system that could help the world's 800 million people who lack safe drinking water.
Sep 29, 2011 |
4.3 / 5 (11) |
10
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Clear link between solar activity and winter weather revealed
Scientists have demonstrated a clear link between the 11-year sun cycle and winter weather over the northern hemisphere for the first time.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 10, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (18) |
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Dwarf planet Haumea shines with crystalline ice
The fifth dwarf planet of the Solar System, Haumea, and at least one of its two satellites, are covered in crystalline water-ice due to the tidal forces between them and the heat of radiogenic elements. This ...
May 12, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (14) |
12
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Metal particle generates new hope for H2 energy
(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny metallic particles produced by University of Adelaide chemistry researchers are bringing new hope for the production of cheap, efficient and clean hydrogen energy.
Jun 28, 2011 |
4.7 / 5 (13) |
3
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Forcing mismatched elements together could yield better solar cells
(PhysOrg.com) -- In what could be a step toward higher efficiency solar cells, an international team including University of Michigan professors has invalidated the most commonly used model to explain the behavior of a unique ...
Sep 08, 2010 |
4.8 / 5 (12) |
3
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A Puzzling Collapse of Earth's Upper Atmosphere
NASA-funded researchers are monitoring a big event in our planet's atmosphere. High above Earth's surface where the atmosphere meets space, a rarefied layer of gas called "the thermosphere" recently collapsed ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 15, 2010 |
4.4 / 5 (47) |
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'Quantum coaxial cable': Device proves solar cell potential of high bandgap inorganic nanowire arrays
A report, published in the March 14 edition of the Journal of Materials Chemistry, announced the successful fabrication and testing of a new type solar cell using an inorganic core/shell nanowire structure.
Apr 12, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
6
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New method to make gallium arsenide solar cells
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new "transfer-printing" method of making light-sensitive semiconductors could make solar cells, night-vision cameras, and a range of other devices much more efficient, and could transform ...
May 20, 2010 |
4.8 / 5 (24) |
4
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Earth is getting dustier, model suggests
(PhysOrg.com) -- If the house seems dustier than it used to be, it may not be a reflection on your housekeeping skills. The amount of dust in the Earth's atmosphere has doubled over the last century, according ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 05, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
6
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Biggest solar storm since 2005 pummels Earth
A potent solar flare has unleashed the biggest radiation storm since 2005 and could disrupt some satellite communications in the polar regions, US space weather monitors said Monday.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jan 23, 2012 |
4.3 / 5 (11) |
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When worlds collide: Researchers harness supercomputers to understand solar storm, magnetosphere
If the sun is anything, it is reassuring. It rises, sets, and rises again, allowing us to grow crops, get tan, and power homes, just to name a few of humanity's most important life-sustaining functions. No ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Feb 07, 2012 |
3 / 5 (1) |
6
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Scientists Reproduce a Building Block of Life in Laboratory
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA scientists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, a key component of our hereditary material, in the laboratory.
Nov 06, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (28) |
0
Forests of Artificial Trees Could Slow Global Warming
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study on how technology could help to regulate climate change has studied hundreds of ideas, and selected three considered practical and able to be implemented quickly. The report's ...
Aug 28, 2009 |
3.6 / 5 (27) |
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Sunlight
Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total spectrum of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the atmosphere, and the solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon. Near the poles in summer, the days are longer and the nights are shorter or non-existent. In the winter at the poles the nights are longer and for some periods of time, sunlight may not occur at all. When the direct radiation is not blocked by clouds, it is experienced as sunshine, a combination of bright light and heat. Radiant heat directly produced by the radiation of the sun is different from the increase in atmospheric temperature due to the radiative heating of the atmosphere by the sun's radiation. Sunlight may be recorded using a sunshine recorder, pyranometer or pyrheliometer. Sunlight takes about 8.3 minutes to reach the Earth. The World Meteorological Organization defines sunshine as direct irradiance from the Sun measured on the ground of at least 120 watts per square metre.
Direct sunlight has a luminous efficacy of about 93 lumens per watt of radiant flux, which includes infrared, visible, and ultra-violet light. Bright sunlight provides luminance of approximately 100,000 candela per square meter at the Earth's surface.
Sunlight is a key factor in photosynthesis, a process crucially important for life on Earth.
For more information about Sunlight, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
