when the map is shown, click on a red dot (city) to show the average
monthly maximum and minimum temperatures observed there
when the graph is shown, roll the mouse over the lines to get a display of the values
Rotation - make the Earth rotate in "real-time" (that is, one rotation per 24 hours)
Faster Rotation - make the Earth rotate faster (by a factor of 86400)
(Note that when the map is showing, the rotation rate is reduced by a factor of 2.)
Orbit - check to have rotation and orbit synchronized
Faster Orbit - check to make the orbit faster and not be synchronized to the rotation
(to ~14.3 degrees per second, or one complete orbit in about 25 seconds)
Solar Insolation Graph - toggle on/off the graph of the Average Daily
Solar Insolation at the top of the atmosphere
Month slider - as the Earth orbits the Sun, this shows the month during the year; you may also grab the slider thumb to move as desired.
The maps of global images showing solar insulation are 24 year (1984-2007) monthly averages of
surface incoming shortwave radiation and were provided by NASA from the GEWEX SRB
Shortwave Release 3 algorithm.
The scale for the maps (units are Watts / m2):
When you click on a red dot the average high and low temperature plot will appear
(the city you selected is shown with bold lines; the previously selected city is also shown
for comparison).
Applet Copyright (2010) by Tom Whittaker and Tommy Jasmin.
