NAME

Insolation - Perl extension for calculating the amount of energy at a given point on the earth for a given time period.

SYNOPSIS

  use Insolation;

  my $insolation = new Insolation();

  $insolation->set_latitude('44.915982');   # set latitude
  $insolation->set_longitude('-93.228340'); # set longitude
  $insolation->set_year('2010');            # set year
  $insolation->set_month('10');             # set month
  $insolation->calculate_insolation();      # calculate the insolation for the givin information

  # get xml output
  my $xml = $insolation->get_xml();

  # get csv output
  my $csv = $insolation->get_csv();

  # get culmulative energy for the month
  my $month_energy = $insolation->get_ym_insolation('2010-10');
  printf "insolation for 2010-10    : %9.2f\n", $month_energy;

  # get the energy on a specific day
  my $day_energy = $insolation->get_ymd_insolation('2010-10-01');
  printf "insolation for 2010-10-01 : %9.2f\n", $day_energy;

DESCRIPTION

This module will compute the amount of insolation at a specific location. Passing in your longitude and latitude it'll then need your month and year. "Insolation" means sunlight received from the Sun at top-of-atmosphere. On a global annual basis, about 57% of insolation is incident on the Earth's surface. Clouds are the main cause of this decrease, but even clear sky will have some reduction.

ERRORS

Calculation for insolation in the Atmosphere-Ocean Model has inaccuracies that should be kept in mind. These are roughly ordered according to importance.

1. We assume the Earth revolves through its orbit in exactly 365 days.

2. We assume that the Vernal equinox always occurs on March 21, hour 0.

3. We calculate the Earth in its orbit only once a day.

4. Instead of integrating insolation over a GCM grid box, we integrate insolation over a single latitude line within the box. That line is the area weighted latitude of the box. This error causes global insolation to increase by .0001 and is accentuated at the poles.

5. We keep the orbital parameters fixed during long runs.

6. We keep the meridion where the sun is overhead on noon Greenwich mean time as the Greenwich meridion. (That meridion is calculated but not used.)

7. We treat the Sun as a point; its radius does not affect our distance to the sun.

8. We treat the Earth as a point; its radius does not affect the distance to the sun.

9. We ignore the existence of the Moon, and assume that the center of the Earth-Moon system is the center of the Earth.

10. We assume that the Earth is spherical.

11. We assume that the orbit is a perfect ellipse; other heavenly bodies do not affect it.

12. We use Berger's orbital parameters.

EXPORT

None by default.

SEE ALSO

Idea Source link : http://aom.giss.nasa.gov/srlocat.html

Wiki link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insolation

Web link : http://www.travisbeste.com/programming/perl/Insolation

AUTHOR

Travis Kent Beste, <travis@tencorners.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2010 by Travis Kent Beste

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.10.0 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

cpanm Insolation

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Insolation