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Hourly Solar Radiation plots, Plotted by Day

Please create a single hourly graphic labeled 0 through 24 hours. Enable plot of the incident solar radiation (w/m2) by selected latitude and day of the year. Enable selection of multiple days to overplot on the same graphic. This makes for useful comparison and determination of when the solar radiation levels become tolerable for outdoor work in the South.
(Assuming clear skies and low total atmospheric moisture content). This plot would at least serve as a baseline for reference.

The plot would incidently show sunrise and sunset as well, and hours of sun above the horizon. Twilight would really not be that important.

Now the point, isn't to make this overly complex by including weather/cloud data, which can vary by the minute, and can be pretty unpredictable.

It is just a way of seeing the variation of hourly solar radiation (hourly average) based on latitude. Could get really fancy and do it by the minute.

An additional overlay (not used in the solar radiation calculation), would be to add the reatlime heat index. The combination of solar radiation and real time heat index, gives a good estimate of outdoor working conditions, and whether it would be better to just stay indoors.

Joel Lanier , 07.08.2015, 15:38
Idea status: under consideration

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