CLIMATOLOGY OF SOLAR RADIATION IN EUROPE

A PROPOS DES CARTES

The maps used in this site are extracted from the European Solar Radiation Atlas, (2000), edited and published by Les Presses de l'Ecole des Mines de Paris, on behalf of the European Commission (order the Atlas, more technical information and examples). The maps are reproduced by permission of the Editor.

For example, the following map exhibits the climatological mean of the daily irradiation observed in September.

On the maps, the oceans and other water bodies are in deep blue. For a better legibility, state borders are superimposed and drawn in green.

The map projection is canonical. North is on top of the map, South bottom, East right and West left. Latitude increases regularly from 25 °N (bottom) up to 75 °N (top). Longitude increases regularly from 30 °W (left) up to 70 °E (right).

The color scale provides the correspondance between colors and daily irradiation values, from 0 to 8000 Wh/m². Irradiation increases from white (null value) to red-braun (8000 Wh/m²).