BALLOON BORNE MEASUREMENT OF THE SOLAR CONSTANT.
Abstract
Current estimates of the solar constant range from 1.89 to 2.05 gm cal/sq cm/min. A major portion of the uncertainty arises from the atmospheric corrections that have to be applied to ground based measurements. A description is given of the instrumentation developed to make the measurement from balloon altitudes. The solar irradiance corrected to the mean earth sun distance as measured at altitudes above 31 km on four separate occasions was 1.867. This value compares very well with an average value of 1.867 obtained by Kondratiev et al., during a series of eight balloon flights. When this value is corrected for residual atmospheric corrections a value of 1.919 gm cal/sq cm/min is obtained for the solar constant. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1969
- Accession Number
- AD0691061
Entities
People
- David G. Murcray
Organizations
- University of Denver