Back to basic designs

From: "John Frazer"
To:
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 10:23 PM
Subject: [spacesettlers] Back to basic designs

[snikt]
> (Does anybody know off-hand the intensity of sunlight in space?
> Optimally, it's ~1360 watts/m^2 at Earth surface, I believe, but
> what's the factor for how much the atmosphere blocks/scatters?)
[snikt]

According to Savage's book, this 1360 W/m^2 value is for sunlight *in
space*. Due to atmospheric blocking/reflection/scattering, however, the
amount of energy that hit the Earth surface is just 40% of the original
value. (Note: when I say "sunlight" I'm in fact saying "energy irradiated by
the sun in the form of electromagnetic waves". The atmosphere blocks a lot
of the wavelengths, like infrared and ultraviolet, but let a great deal of
visible light to pass through.)

Lucio