Satellite-derived assessments of surface downwelling solar irradiance are more and more used by engineering companies in solar energy. To increase performances, work is on going in the framework of the MACC project funded by the European commission, to improve both the modeling of the radiative transfer and the quality of the inputs describing the optical state of the atmosphere. The present st...

Improvements to spectral and temporal solar irradiances are often based upon increasingly accurate and precise measurements as well as upon better understood physics. This paper reports on one example in an emerging trend for solar irradiance models that can be characterized as hybrid irradiance modeling. Empirical and physics-based modeling of irradiances are combined and take advantage of str...

[1] We study the solar impact on 400 years of a global surface temperature record since 1600. This period includes the pre-industrial era (roughly 1600–1800 or 1600–1900), when negligible amount of anthropogenic-added climate forcing was present and the sun realistically was the only climate force affecting climate on a secular scale, and the industrial era (roughly since 1800–1900), when anthr...

Attenuation of global ultraviolet and visible irradiance over Greece during the total solar eclipse of 29 March 2006 A. Kazantzidis, A. F. Bais, C. Emde, S. Kazadzis, and C. S. Zerefos Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Deutsches Zentrum für Luftund Raumfahrt (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, 82234 Wessling, G...

Context. The variable Sun is the most likely candidate for natural forcing of past climate change on time scales of 50 to 1000 years. Evidence for this understanding is that the terrestrial climate correlates positively with solar activity. During the past 10000 years, the Sun has experienced substantial variations in activity and there have been numerous attempts to reconstruct solar irradianc...

A Sun-tracking imaging system is implemented for minimizing circumsolar image distortion for improved short-term solar irradiance forecasts. This sky-imaging system consists of a fisheye digital camera mounted on an automatic solar tracker that follows the diurnal pattern of the Sun. The Sun is located at the geometric center of the sky images where the fisheye distortion is minimized. Images f...

We present model calculations of facular and sunspot contrasts as a function of wavelength and limb angle on the Sun. These are the first such calculations; they assume LTE and are based on opacity distribution functions (ODFs). The calculated facular contrasts as a function of limb angle fit into the general picture of contrast measurements, and the behaviour of the contrast with wavelength at...

This paper presents sizing, energy management strategy, and cost analysis for a configuration consisting of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, fuel cell (FC) storage system, and reverse osmosis (RO) desalination technology for combined power and fresh water production. In this system, PV is the main power supply source; fuel cell is a storage system accompanied by Hydrogen production and storage d...