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Environmental Engineering CE 371

Solar Angle and Shortwave Radiation at the Earths Surface
Shortwave radiation (visible light) is highly directional, so the relative angle of the source and the
receiving surface has a strong effect on the density of the energy flux reaching the surface. (In
contrast, longwave infrared radiation is very diffuse and the exact direction of the source is
relatively unimportant and can usually be neglected.) Thus, to calculate the input of solar heat
from shortwave radiation to a surface we must know the angle between the sun and the surface.
Solar Angle: The solar angle () is the enclosed angle between the sun and the surface of the
earth. This is important because the total insolation received at the surface (I
s
) is reduced from the
perpendicular maximum amount (I
o
) by the relationship I
s
= I
o
sin . At dawn and dusk the solar
angle = 0 by definition, so naturally the insolation drops to zero at those times. Keep in mind
the obvious fact (sometimes forgotten by novices) that the solar angle remains at = 0 all night
(there is no such thing as negative shortwave insolation, which is what a negative would give
you. Keep in mind though that the heat budget sign convention means that the input of positive
shortwave insolation always results in a negative (in) value for heating due to shortwave light,

s
.)
From trigonometric and planetary considerations, the solar angle depends on three variables:
= declination (the seasonally varying angle of the plane traversed by the sun across the sky)
= latitude (the geographic angle along the surface of the earth)
= hour angle of the sun (the angle of the sun along the arc traversed by the sun across the sky)
The formula for solar angle is:
sin = sin sin + cos cos cos
Latitude is easily determined from a map and is constant for a given location. Declination depends on
the day of the year and is obtained from a table of astronomical data known as an ephemeris. A copy of
an ephemeris with declination data is given at the end of this file. You can also follow the link to
NASAs online ephemeris at: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eph. Hour angle varies throughout the day
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and is a bit more complicated. However, with a few calculations we can make some useful
simplifications to get average values for an entire day.
Hour Angle: The hour angle of the sun, , is defined such that = 0 at the local solar noon. (I.e.,
when the sun is at its maximum solar angle for the day, or equivalently, when the sun crosses the local
meridian of longitude). In the morning (AM) < 0 (hour angle is negative) and in the afternoon (PM)
> 0 (hour angle is positive).
Maximum Hour Angle,
max
: The total range of possible hour angles on a given date depends on the
local latitude () and on the season of the year, i.e., the earths declination () on that date. Lets call the
maximum possible hour angle for a given date
max
. At the spring and autumn equinoxes, day and night
are exactly the same length (slightly less than 12:00 h) and
max
= 90 . In the winter, the day is shorter
than the night so
max
< 90 and in the summer
max
> 90 . For example, the drawing above shows the
range of hour angles for summertime when the sun rises north of due east and sets north of due west,
resulting in a day length greater than 12 h and
max
> 90 .
How can we calculate
max
for a given date and latitude? We know that the solar angle is calculated
from sin = sin sin + cos cos cos . At dawn and dusk the solar angle is = 0 . And, by
definition, =
max
at dawn and dusk. So, set = 0 = sin and solve for
max
.
0 = sin sin + cos cos cos
max

max
= cos
-1
[(-sin sin )/(cos cos )]
We can convert hour angles to time in hours if we know the time it takes for the sun to traverse one
degree of arc. This is easy to calculate if you recognize that, at the equinox, the sun traverses 180 of
arc in 12.0 h or 720 min. The sun thus takes 4.0 min to move 1 or 40 min to move 10 . Note that we
can also now compute the total day length (excluding any shade from hills, trees, or structures) from

max
:
Day length in min = 2(
max
)(4.0 min/ )
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Example: Calculate the total number of hours of daylight on June 1
st
in Portland, assuming Portland is
at latitude = 45 N.
From the ephemeris we find = 22 on June 1
st
(21 57' to be precise) so:

max
= cos
-1
[(-sin 22 sin 45 )/(cos 22 cos 45 )] = cos
-1
[-(0.37)(0.71)/(0.93)(0.71)] = 114
Total day length = 2(114 )(4.0 min/deg) = 911 min = 15.2 h
This seems reasonable for a long summer day in early June (and with a night period of less than 9 h).
Calculating Average Shortwave Insolation Over an Entire (24 h) Day: For most heat budget
problems we dont want the instantaneous (constantly varying) shortwave flux. Instead we usually need
the daily average heat input from solar shortwave energy. Since I
s
varies as a trigonometric function
over the course of the daylight period, we can calculate the mean insolation for the day from taking the
integral average of solar angle and then multiplying by the fraction of the 24-h day in which the sun is
shining. An alternative and equivalent approach is to integrate the trigonometric insolation function
over the entire day to get total daily shortwave energy input per unit area, which we then divide by the
length of one day to get the mean power flux. We can do all of this using the equations developed
above.
( )
[ ]

s s o o
I I I = = = + sin sin sin (cos cos ) cos
For a given day and location and are constants so we can rewrite the equation as
( )
I I A B
s o
= + cos
To use the mean-value approach, find the average value of the function from sunrise to noon ( = -
max
to
= 0, using units of radians for the hour angle)
{ }
I I A B d
I
A B s
o
o
=

1
2 1 2 1
1
2
1
2
1
2

cos ( ) (sin )
{ }
I
I
A B s
o
=

+


2 1
2 1 2 1
( ) (sin sin )
Example: For June 1
st
, = 22 and a latitude of 45 we found above that
max
= 114 2.0 radians so
from dawn to noon integrate from -2.0 to 0.0 radians. The mean shortwave insolation is then:
{ }
I
I
rad s
o
=
+
+ +
0 2 0
037 071 0 2 0 093 071 0 2 0
.
[( . )( . )]( . ) [( . )( . )][(sin( ) sin( . )]
{ }
I I I s
o o
= + + = 026 033 0 0 91 056 . ( . )[( ) . ] .
So if the maximum solar insolation is 1000 W/m
2
then the surface receives -560 W/m
2
during daylight
hours (only). Therefore over a 24 h day the average insolation input of heat is:
( )
I W m
h
h
W m s
daily
=
|
\

|
.
|
= 560
152
24
355
2 2
/
.
/
Calculating Periods of Sun and Shade: If we are interested in the number of hours per day an object
is in sun or shade, we need to know the value of at which shade begins and ends. We can then project
the time period of sun on either side of local solar noon.
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For example, suppose an object is in shade in
the AM until the solar angle reaches -50 .
The sunlight thus begins (50 ) x (4 min/ ) =
200 min = 3:20 h before local solar noon or
at 8:40 AM, local solar time. If the shade
resumes at = +50 , then the object is in the
sun until 3:20 PM and the total period of
sunlight is 6:40 h.
Obviously the example given above is for a simple and symmetrical geometry of objects with
respect to the sun, and where we know the times of sun and shade with respect to the hour angle. If
we know the clock times of sun and shade, we would have to work backwards to get the hour angles
that correspond to those times.
To compute the daily average shortwave insolation for a shaded water body, simply repeat the
integration method shown above, but instead of starting at dawn, start the averaging integral at the
hour angle when direct light hits the stream and end at noon as before. This approach works fine for
a relatively narrow stream where we can assume all of the stream is in either sun or in shade. For a
wide river or a lake, there is a gradual transition from shade to sun and we would need to include a
second integral to average the area of water under sunlight as the shade retreats across the surface in
the morning and returns in the afternoon. We will not worry about that here..