News tagged with sunlight
Study supports role of quantum effects in photosynthesis
(PhysOrg.com) -- Until a few years ago, photosynthesis seemed to be a straightforward and well-understood process in which plants and other organisms use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars, ...
Jan 25, 2012 |
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Artificial light-harvesting method achieves 100% energy transfer efficiency
(PhysOrg.com) -- In an attempt to mimic the photosynthetic systems found in plants and some bacteria, scientists have taken a step toward developing an artificial light-harvesting system (LHS) that meets one ...
Sep 01, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (40) |
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Study raises questions on what causes silicon solar cell degradation
(PhysOrg.com) -- After several hours of exposure to sunlight, silicon solar cells experience light-induced degradation, which can decrease their efficiency by up to 10%. In a new study, scientists have attempted ...
Jun 03, 2011 |
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Plant enzyme's origins traced to non-enzyme ancestors
(Phys.org) -- As plants began to transition from aquatic habitats to dry land some 500 million years ago, their needs changed. Those primitive ancestors of modern plants were ill-equipped to survive in a dry, sunlight-blasted ...
May 13, 2012 |
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Understanding photosynthesis: How plants use catalytic reactions to split oxygen from water
Splitting hydrogen and oxygen from water using conventional electrolysis techniques requires considerable amounts of electrical energy. But green plants produce oxygen from water efficiently using a catalytic ...
Apr 02, 2012 |
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Solar start-ups set new efficiency records
(PhysOrg.com) -- Although Alta Devices and Semprius make different types of solar panels, both start-ups have been breaking records in the past few days. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Alta Devices announced that ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
Feb 08, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (17) |
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Discovery of a 'dark state' could increase maximum theoretical efficiency of solar cells from 31 to 44 percent
The efficiency of conventional solar cells could be significantly increased, according to new research on the mechanisms of solar energy conversion led by chemist Xiaoyang Zhu at The University of Texas at Austin.
Dec 15, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (23) |
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Silver and white cars are cooler, says study
(PhysOrg.com) -- From an environment standpoint, silver and white cars are cool; black cars are not. Researchers at the Berkeley Lab Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) say that the color of ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
Oct 25, 2011 |
3.3 / 5 (8) |
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'Artificial leaf' makes fuel from sunlight (w/ video)
Researchers led by MIT professor Daniel Nocera have produced something they’re calling an “artificial leaf”: Like living leaves, the device can turn the energy of sunlight directly into a chemical ...
Sep 30, 2011 |
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Lessons to be learned from nature in photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is one of nature's finest miracles. Through the photosynthetic process, green plants absorb sunlight in their leaves and convert the photonic energy into chemical energy that is stored as sugars ...
Sep 23, 2011 |
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Alien world is blacker than coal
(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have discovered the darkest known exoplanet - a distant, Jupiter-sized gas giant known as TrES-2b. Their measurements show that TrES-2b reflects less than one percent of the sunlight ...
Aug 11, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (14) |
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Bring in the (nano) noise
(PhysOrg.com) -- At the forefront of nanotechnology, researchers design miniature machines to do big jobs, from treating diseases to harnessing sunlight for energy. But as they push the limits of this technology, ...
May 27, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (11) |
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Teaching algae to make fuel
Many kinds of algae and cyanobacteria, common water-dwelling microorganisms, are capable of using energy from sunlight to split water molecules and release hydrogen, which holds promise as a clean and carbon-free ...
May 24, 2011 |
4.3 / 5 (10) |
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New reactor paves the way for efficiently producing fuel from sunlight
Using a common metal most famously found in self-cleaning ovens, Sossina Haile hopes to change our energy future. The metal is cerium oxide—or ceria—and it is the centerpiece of a promising new technology ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
Jan 19, 2011 |
4.7 / 5 (32) |
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City lights make air pollution worse
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study by scientists in Los Angeles, California has found that bright city lights makes air pollution worse because the glare of the lights interferes with chemical reactions that clean ...
Dec 16, 2010 |
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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.
