IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v7y1996i1p57-65.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Air mass: Analytical and empirical treatment; an improved formula for air mass

Author

Listed:
  • Nijegorodov, N.
  • Luhanga, P.V.C.

Abstract

In this paper, relative air mass is defined analytically and treated empirically, and a new formula is proposed. This formula takes into account not only the zenith angle, but also the Earth's curvature, altitude and temperature. The new formula and the old one (m = 1cos θz) are in good agreement for zenith angles up to 70°, but for bigger angles the new formula gives smaller values of air mass. In particular, it gives a finite value for air mass when the zenith angle is 90°. It is shown that the old formula is a special case of the new one. The values of relative air mass calculated with the new formula depend on the effective thickness of the atmosphere. Experimentally, it is found that the effective thickness of the atmosphere is linearly related to the average thickness of the atmosphere, which depends on latitude and meteorological conditions. It is concluded that for values of θz up to 70°, with little error, the old formula can be used, but that for larger zenith angles (especially for times near sunrise or sunset), only the new formula can give proper and meaningful results. The influence of the zenith angle, the altitude and the temperature on the relative air mass is analyzed.

Suggested Citation

  • Nijegorodov, N. & Luhanga, P.V.C., 1996. "Air mass: Analytical and empirical treatment; an improved formula for air mass," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 57-65.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:7:y:1996:i:1:p:57-65
    DOI: 10.1016/0960-1481(95)00111-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0960148195001115
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/0960-1481(95)00111-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nijegorodov, N. & Carlsson, S. & Lekorwe, O., 1994. "An improved formula for air mass and the investigation of its validity," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 5(5), pages 1514-1516.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nijegorodov, N. & Adedoyin, J.A. & Devan, K.R.S., 1997. "A new analytical-empirical model for the instantaneous diffuse radiation and experimental investigation of its validity," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 341-350.
    2. Filip Žemla & Ján Cigánek & Danica Rosinová & Erik Kučera & Oto Haffner, 2023. "Complex Positioning System for the Control and Visualization of Photovoltaic Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-31, May.
    3. Badescu, Viorel & Gueymard, Christian A. & Cheval, Sorin & Oprea, Cristian & Baciu, Madalina & Dumitrescu, Alexandru & Iacobescu, Flavius & Milos, Ioan & Rada, Costel, 2012. "Computing global and diffuse solar hourly irradiation on clear sky. Review and testing of 54 models," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 1636-1656.
    4. Nijegorodov, N. & Luhanga, P.V.C., 1998. "A new model to predict direct normal instantaneous solar radiation, based on laws of spectroscopy, kinetic theory and thermodynamics," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 523-530.
    5. Nijegorodov, N.I. & Devan, K.R.S. & Simao, H. & Mabbs, R., 2003. "Comprehensive study of solar conditions in Mozambique: the effect of trade winds on solar components," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 1965-1983.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nijegorodov, N. & Luhanga, P.V.C., 1998. "A new model to predict direct normal instantaneous solar radiation, based on laws of spectroscopy, kinetic theory and thermodynamics," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 523-530.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:7:y:1996:i:1:p:57-65. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.