GC: n

CT: Solar Irradiance is a measure of how much solar power you are getting at your location. This irradiance varies throughout the year depending on the seasons. It also varies throughout the day, depending on the position of the sun in the sky, and the weather.
Solar insolation is a measure of solar irradiance over of period of time – typically over the period of a single day.
This irradiance calculator takes data collated over a 22 year period to provide monthly average insolation figures. This information is then used to calculate the average daily power generation a photovoltaic system will produce in any given month.

S: http://solarelectricityhandbook.com/solar-irradiance.html (last access: 22 December 2014)

N: 1. solar (adj): mid-15c., “pertaining to the sun,” from Latin solaris “of the sun,” from sol “sun”. Meaning “living room on an upper story” is from Old English, from Latin solarium. Old English had sunlic “solar.”
irradiance (n): 1660s, from irradiant (1520s), from Latin irradiantem (nominative irradians), present participle of irradiare. Related: Irradiancy (1640s).
First Known Use of irradiance: 1599. The density of radiation incident on a given surface usually expressed in watts per square centimeter or square meter.
2. The amount of solar energy that arrives at a specific area at a specific time.
3. Measurement of the absolute value of total solar irradiance (TSI) is difficult from the Earth’s surface because of the need to correct for the influence of the atmosphere. Langley (1884) attempted to minimise the atmospheric effects by taking measurements from high on Mt. Whitney in California, and to estimate the correction for atmospheric effects by taking measurements at several times of day, for example, with the solar radiation having passed through different atmospheric pathlengths.

S: 1. OED – (last access: 22 December 2014); MW – http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irradiance (last access: 22 December 2014). 2. http://www.oilgae.com/ref/glos/solar_irradiance.html (last access: 22 December 2014). 3. http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch1s1-4-3.html (last access: 22 December 2014).

SYN: insolation (INcoming SOLar radiATION), incoming solar radiation.

S: GDT

CR: solar energy, solar radiation.