Part I.

MATLAB Objective:

• Make use of previously written code.

Radiation Objective:

• Understanding the relationship between solar radiation at the top of atmosphere, day length and solar zenith angle.

Instructions

Calculate and plot the difference between the maximum (22 June) and minimum (22 December) values of the 24 hour total solar flux at the top of atmoshpere, solar zenith angle at local solar noon, and daylength as a function of latitude for the Northern Hemisphere.

• Why is the difference in incoming solar radiation negative at the equator?
• Which effect, solar zenith or day lenght, dominates the seasonal difference in insolation between the equator and 30N?
• Which effect, solar zenith or day lenght, dominates the seasonal difference in insolation poleward of 60N?
• Do you think the magnitude of the season difference in temperature increases with latitude?

Part II.

Radiation Objective:

• Understanding the relationship between last week's homework and remote sensing of clouds from satellites.

Instructions

Go to the following web page and use the java applet to answer the questions on that page. Clouds and satellite infrared observations.

In writting the math program to do this exercise an assumption was made about the radiative properties of the cloud. What is this assumption?