A Hemispheric View on the Solar Induced Temperature of the Earth

Abstract

From the first computer-based climate models to the latest general circulation models, hardware and software development have made incredible strides. However, the underlying physical principles of solar irradiation still date back to the analog era, and the initial simplifications of the underlying physical knowledge have not been sufficiently refined. The sun’s role is still reduced to its global average value over day and night, and furthermore, the geographical differences between the tropics and the poles continue to be neglected. Modern computer systems no longer require such simplifications. From the perspective of applied physics, it would be advantageous to begin climate calculations for the Earth today directly with the incident solar radiation on its dayside. This work demonstrates that a hemispherical consideration of incident solar irradiation, incorporating time of day, individual geographic location, and season, could significantly improve the scientific view on the role of the Sun more effective than miniaturizing the computational cells in digital climate models further.