8/23/2018

PROPERTIES OF SOLAR
RADIATION

Learning objectives:
– Solar spectrum
– power density, photon flux, photon energy,
photon wavelength & relationships
– spectral irradiance

– Air mass : AM0 & AM1.5

– Terrestrial Solar Radiation: Effects of
atmosphere, angular dependence of
radiation, variation of solar radiation
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The Sun and black body radiation

• The sun is a sphere of hot gas heated by thermonuclear fusion
• Hot bodies emit electromagnetic radiation with a spectral distribution
determined by the body’s temperature
• For a totally “black body” (i.e. one whose surface is totally absorbing so that
“other” outside radiation is not reflected back from it), the spectral distribution
as a function of temperature is given by Planck’s Radiation Law :

R ( )  2hc2
   
5 exp hc  1
 (1)
 kT 

 
 
where:
R is the spectral irradiance in Wm-2 µm-1
λ is the wavelength of light (µm);
T is the temperature of the black body (K); and
h, c and k are constants

Black body spectrum

physics.schooltool.nl/irspectroscopy/method.php

• The color of an object depends upon its temperature as predicted by the Stefan-
Boltzmann law. This law describes the "ideal" black body radiation given off by any
object above absolute zero.
• As temperature increases, the peak wavelength is blue-shifted (wavelength
decreases, frequency increases)
• As the temperature increases, the radiated power increases
• At 6000 K, there is substantial radiation in the UV and visible regions of the spectrum
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Solar spectrum

• The Sun is not a perfect black body, but its

emission spectrum approximates quite well
to a 6000K black body spectrum
(photosphere temperature ~6000K)

• solar spectrum incident on the Earth:

- ultraviolet radiation: 200 - 380 nm
- visible light : 380 - 700 nm
- infrared radiation : 700 - 3000 nm
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Electromagnetic spectrum

Solar radiation has peak intensities in the shorter wavelengths,

dominant in the region we know as visible, but extends at low
intensity into long wave regions. 6

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How much light do we get?

The critical characteristics of sunlight:
1. the spectral content of the incident light;
2. the radiant power density from the sun;
3. the angle at which the incident solar
radiation strikes a PV cell (or) module; and
4. the radiant energy from the sun throughout a
year or day for a particular surface.

Properties of sunlight
• Energy of a photon:
-- Sun’s energy reaches earth as radiation
which is composed of discrete packets of
energy known as “ photons”
– Energy of a photon is dictated by its
frequency or wavelength by:

E  J   h (2)

where :
h, Planck's constant  6.621034 Js
 , frequency in s-1
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Properties of sunlight
• Sun radiates photons over a range of
frequencies.
• These frequencies are related to wave length
(λ) by equation:

νc (3)
λ
where: 'c' is the velocity of light, 3108 m2.s1
From eqs 2&3, we write

E  hc  J   1.24  eV 

λ λ m (4)
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Properties of sunlight
• Photon flux:

φ  no. of photons
m2. sec (5)

– Significant in determining the number of electrons

generated and hence current in a PV cell
– does not give any information about either the energy
or wavelength of the photon
– At a given wavelength, the combination of the photon
wavelength or energy and the photon flux at that
wavelength can be used to calculate the power
density for photons at the particular wavelength.
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Properties of sunlight
• Photon power density:

– It is the total photon energy per unit time per

area and given by:
 
H W/m 2   φ  hc  J  (6)
  
• Photon flux of high energy (or short λ) photons
needed to give a certain radiant power density
will be lower than the photon flux of low energy
(or long λ) photons required to give the same
radiant power density
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Properties of sunlight
• Solar irradiance : power density at a
particular wavelength
• The total incident power from sun per unit
area at a specific wavelength interval -
commonly known as spectral irradiance
H 
W

  φ  hc . J  (7)
 
 m3  .
– standard way to specify the properties of sun
light
– The SI unit is W/m3, but a commonly used unit
is W/m2.µm 12

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Solar radiation in space

• Sun approximates a black
body at T ~ 6000K,
radiating with a power Rs
density of HS ≈ 62 MW/m².
• The power density at D
distance D from sun in
space is given by:
•
R2 (8)
Ho W m2  s Hs
 
 
 

 D2 


where:
R s is the radius of the sun in 'meters'
The solar irradiance on an object some distance D from the sun is found by dividing the 13
total power emitted from the sun by the surface area over which the sunlight falls.

Extraterrestrial radiation
Radiant power density at the earth’s atmosphere is given by:
R 2s
He W m2   H (9)
  De2 s
where R s, is the radius of the sun  6.96108 m
De, is the mean earth - sun distance 1.51011 m
Hs, 62 MW m 2

He 1,367 W m 2 ; known as "solar constant"

- value determined by mounting equipment on balloons, high-
altitude aircraft and spacecraft.

However, the actual power density may vary due to

variations in De & Hs, for photovoltaic applications, He is
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considered constant.

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Solar radiation in the atmosphere

• When solar radiation enters earth’s atmosphere, a part of
incident energy – removed by scattering or absorption by air
molecules, clouds and particulate matter (aerosols)

• Radiation that is not reflected or scattered, reaching surface of

earth directly – direct or beam radiation

• Scattered radiation which reaches the ground – diffuse

radiation

• Radiation reaching a receiver after reflection from ground –

albedo.

• Global consists of these three radiations. 15

Solar radiation in the atmosphere

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Atmospheric effects
Atmosphere has several different effects: scattering,
absorption, reflection

Scattering
1. Primarily blue light is scattered – changes the spectrum
that reaches earth.
2. Scattering changes the direction from which light appears
to come.

Two components of solar radiation – direct and indirect

light. Indirect light cannot be concentrated.

Absorption
Specific gases in the atmosphere such as O3, CO2, H2O
absorbs the photons having energies close to their bond
energies, resulting reduction in power density and
change the spectral content 17

Solar radiation: components

• Solar radiation reaching the earth has two components –
direct radiation and diffuse radiation
• As name suggests the direct radiation arrives directly from
the sun; Diffuse solar radiation is that portion of solar
radiation that is scattered downwards by the molecules in
the atmosphere
• The total global irradiance at a point on earth’s surface is:

G (W/m2)  G  G (10)
direct diffuse

• During clear days, the magnitude of direct radiation is about

90% of the total solar radiation received at the earth's
surface. Only diffuse radiation may reach the earth's
surface during extremely cloudy days 18

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Standard spectrum: Concept of air mass

The Air Mass quantifies the
reduction in the power of light as it
passes through the atmosphere
and is absorbed by air and dust. It
is defined as : θ

Air mass  1 (11)

cos
The solar radiation outside the Earth’s atmosphere is called AM0
(1.367 kW/m2) – relevant for satellite applications
When the sun is directly overhead ( = 0), AM1.
.
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Air mass
Air Mass is the path length which light takes through
the atmosphere normalized to the shortest possible
path length (that is, when the sun is over head)

Air mass  path length of radiation through atmosphere,l

shortest path of radiation through atmosphere, l
0
(12)
A typical spectrum for moderate climates is AM1.5 – angle of
incidence, θ is 48.20
AM1.5 is standard spectrum of sunlight for measuring the
efficiency of solar cell at the Earth's surface (all laboratory
measurements refer to this standard), total power density
content is 1 kW/m2 (close to maximum received in earth 20
surface)

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Spectral distribution of sunlight

AM0 and AM1.5 are shown in Fig. together with the radiation
distribution expected from sun if it were a black body at 6000K.
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Angular dependence
• The angle between the sun and the Earth’s surface is
continually changing because of the rotation of the Earth
about the sun and the rotation of the Earth on its axis
• Determining the angle between the sunlight and a surface
is critical in finding the amount of incident power received
by a PV cell or module
• The angle between the sun and a fixed location on Earth
depends on the particular location (the longitude of the
location), the time of year and the time of day

• The position of the sun is specified by three angles:

– Declination angle
– Elevation angle
– Azimuth angle
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Maximize your solar window

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Yearly motion of sun

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Declination angle
• Declination angle (δ): angle between the sun and the
earth

• Tilt of the Earth’s axis and rotation around the sun causes
a variation in the angle at which the sun strikes the Earth.
Declination angle represents this tilt
– The declination angle, denoted by δ, varies seasonally
due to the tilt of the Earth on its axis of rotation and the
rotation of the Earth around the sun.
– Maximum value of the declination angle is the tilt of the
earth’s axis (23.45°)
– Maximum and minimum occur at summer and winter
solstice
– Declination angel is 0 at equinoxes 25

Declination angle
• The declination angle, which is the same
everywhere on earth at a given time, and
changes with seasons.

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Motion of sun

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Solar radiation
• On any given day the solar radiation varies
continuously from sunup to sundown and
depends on cloud cover, sun position and
content and turbidity of the atmosphere.
• The maximum irradiance is available at solar
noon which is defined as the midpoint, in time,
between sunrise and sunset.
• Insolation (now commonly referred as
irradiation) differs from irradiance because of
the inclusion of time. Insolation is the amount
of solar energy received on a given area over
time measured in kilowatt-hours per square
meter (kW-hr/m2) - this value is equivalent to
"peak sun hours".
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Peak sun hours

• Peak sun hours is defined as
the equivalent number of hours
per day, with solar irradiance
equaling 1,000 W/m2, that
gives the same energy received
from sunrise to sundown.
• Peak sun hours only make
sense because PV panel power
output is rated with a radiation
level of 1,000W/m2.
• Many tables of solar data are
often presented as an average
daily value of peak sun hours
(kW-hr/m2) for each month.
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Global distribution of sun radiation

Average annual ground solar radiation varies across the surface of the earth: 30
clear sky insolation incident normally on the surface (kWh/m2/day)

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Solar radiation at different geographic location

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A warm future

AR4 (2007, IPCC)

The earth will see a significant rise in average global temperatures 32
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in next 100 years assuming that current emissions trends continue

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