Getting Longer Everyday !

[Jim Almquist]

There was a thread started about were to find out the barometric pressure and Steve Foss tells me to go to weather underground. The one thing I like is the fact that it tells me how much more daylight we are getting each day. Right now it is about 3 minutes and 14 seconds longer each day

I love winter but really want to hop in the boat and start trolling Lake Superior for Salmon and Trout !

[Nick Kuhn]

The nerd in me is kind of ashamed but I have an excel file that calculated "insolation" (total solar energy received throughout a day), as length of day and noon time sun angle just wasn't enough for me. I can show you the formula to calculate it. It's pretty complicated, but nothing anyone hoping to be in a science field in this day and age shouldn't be able to figure out on their own.

[prov1900]

It is time. 6 p.m. daylight tells me that it is time to get hooks sharpened, boat cleaned out, hubs greased, and very shortly, new line strung and reels greased. Sounds like one more 'hurrah' for snow this weekend (hopefully no more than that) so I got a great weekend project all lined up.

[Nick Kuhn]

So here's the value for energy in a day. By this time next week, we should be picking up twice as much energy as we did January 1st. And below that is the formula used to calculate it, or a foreign language, you can decide.

[prov1900]

And I always said that I would never use math again!!! Thanks Nick, all I need to hear is the "twice the energy as Jan 1"!!!

[mww24]

HUH Nick? I almost passed out from getting smacked in the face with whatver that was. I like graphs though. Maybe a pie chart?

[Jim Almquist]

Nick way too much math for me

I do like the increase of energy with every passing day

[TooTallTom]

Don't be ashamed of your inner nerd, my friend. I thought that line graph was pretty cool, and noticed that it's almost a normal curve.

I wonder what the graphs of solar energy would look like for different parts of the world? I assume it's almost a flat line when approaching the equator... God, I love having seasons. Seems like when I'm just getting sick of one, it changes. Though I do definitely prefer Fall and Winter to Summer and Spring.

Thanks again,

Tom.

[TruthWalleyes]

Pretty simple little derivitive you've got there

[Nick Kuhn]

Don't be ashamed of your inner nerd, my friend. I thought that line graph was pretty cool, and noticed that it's almost a normal curve.

I wonder what the graphs of solar energy would look like for different parts of the world? I assume it's almost a flat line when approaching the equator... God, I love having seasons. Seems like when I'm just getting sick of one, it changes. Though I do definitely prefer Fall and Winter to Summer and Spring.

Thanks again,

Tom.

Well, no matter how many sines and cosines you integrate, the end result will always be a sine curve of some sort.

I used this site for some of the info on how to calculate it. It does show the energy at different latitudes, at the solstices and equinoxes. Oddly enough, during the height of summer we actually receive more solar energy than they do in Texas. Even more interesting, is that the most sunlight you can receive on any given day is actually December 21st at the South Pole (due to the sun being up for 24 hours).

http://www.applet-magic.com/insolation.htm

[TooTallTom]

Fair one, I didn't even think about that.

I heard once that MN has had a higher heat index than either FL or HI whether that is still, or ever was, true I don't know. But, it makes sense with the amount of solar energy we soak up. I think we get more solar energy than TX for the same reason that the Solstice at the South Pole has the most. It's turned more towards the sun at that time.