Approximating Annual Mean Incoming Solar Radiation

Alice Nadeau and Richard McGehee

J. Math. Anal. Appl. 500 1 (2021) doi:10.1016/j.jmaa.2021.125129

Abstract

We derive the Legendre series expansion for the insolation distribution on rapidly rotating planets as a function of sine of the latitude and the planet's obliquity. We give an explicit formula for the coefficients of this series as it depends on the obliquity and approximate the convergence rate. We determine the optimal truncation of the series for use in climate models and compare this approximation to other approximations in the literature.

Electronic Copies

The paper is available for subscribers on the publisher's Website:
doi:10.1016/j.jmaa.2021.125129

Early versions are available on ArXiv:

January 27, 2021, version:
ArXiv: arXiv:1810.10081v2
Cached Copy: Nadeau2021ArXiv_v2.pdf

October 15, 2018, version:
ArXiv: arXiv:1810.10081v1
Cached Copy: Nadeau2021ArXiv_v1.pdf