John Butler wrote: > This may seem a very silly question but here goes.. > > What is the behaviour of the sun path through the year in the tropics?
The Florida Solar Energy Center publishes a computer program, called SUNPATH, which calculates and plots sunpath diagrams for any location on Earth, except right at the poles, where a 90 degree latitude causes numerical problems. The standard plot gives a sunpath in altitude-azimuth coordinates for one day in each of the seven months from the June solstice to the December one. Five of these paths are the same as for certain days in the remaining months (Feb. - May). If you give me a couple of latitudes of interest I'll run the program for you, generate a couple of sunpath charts, try to convert them to jpg or gif graphics format (from the hpgl or post script default file types) and attach them to an e-mail message to you. When the site approaches the equator in the northern hemisphere the sun may rise south of east but it can actually cross north of the zenith at solar noon. To handle this, the program expands the range of azimuths plotted and allows the user to change the origin of the aziumth to avoid a discontinuous sunpath plot. Best, Ross -- Ross McCluney, Ph.D. Principal Research Scientist Florida Solar Energy Center, 1679 Clearlake Rd., Cocoa, FL 32922-5703 Voice: 407-638-1414 Fax: 407-638-1439 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Florida Solar Energy Center: http://www.fsec.ucf.edu Sundials: http://www.sunpath-designs.com Introduction to Radiometry and Photometry: http://www.artech-house.com --------------------------------------------------------------
