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Sun Angles

The document defines and describes several angles used to characterize the sun's position in the sky: - Hour angle measures the angular displacement of the sun from the local meridian and indicates how close it is to solar noon. - Declination angle is the angular displacement of the sun at solar noon from the equatorial plane, ranging from -23.5° to +23.5° over the year. - Zenith angle is the angle between the sun's rays and a vertical line from the observer's location.

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Akshay Deshpande
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107 views7 pages

Sun Angles

The document defines and describes several angles used to characterize the sun's position in the sky: - Hour angle measures the angular displacement of the sun from the local meridian and indicates how close it is to solar noon. - Declination angle is the angular displacement of the sun at solar noon from the equatorial plane, ranging from -23.5° to +23.5° over the year. - Zenith angle is the angle between the sun's rays and a vertical line from the observer's location.

Uploaded by

Akshay Deshpande
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Hour angle ():

- The angular displacement of the sun from east to west of the local
meridian due to rotation of the earth on its own axis.
- It gives how close the observer to the solar noon. (solar radiation
intensity is maximum).
- It is considered as - in the morning and + in the evening and at
the solar noon 0.
- It is the angle through which the earth must turn to bring the
meridian directly in line with the sun.
- It is determined by the following expression.
Hour angle () = 15*(Solar time 12) (Degrees)

- Fig shows the principle of hour angle.







Declination angle: ():
- It is angular displacement of the sun at the solar noon with respect to
the plane of equator.
- It is angular distance north or south of the equator of the point when the
sun is at Zenith.
- It is termed as declination of the sun rays with respect to the plane of
equator.
- This angle varies from -23.45
0
to +23.45
0
as the earth performs its yearly
circumnavigation around the sun.
- It is angle formed by the line extending from the centre of the sun to the
centre of the earth and the projection of this line on the earths
equatorial plane.
- Also when the sun is directly overhead at any location during the solar
noon, the latitude of that location gives the declination.
- The fig shows the declination angle.
- The period of the earths complete revolution around the sun does not
coincide exactly with the calendar year.
- Hence the declination varies slightly on the same day from year to year.
- The declination angle of the sun varies at every instant can be calculated
from,
-
) rees deg in (
365
] n 284 [ * 360
sin * 45 . 23
(

+
= o



Fig.No:1 Variation of declination angle throughout the year




To describe the sins path across the sky of a local observer, one needs to know
the zenith angle and suns position relative to north-south axis ie Azimuth angle.

Zenith angle (Z):
- It is the angle subtended by the vertical line to the zenith and the line of
sight to the sun.
- It is angle between the suns rays and a line perpendicular to the
horizontal plane (P).
- Fig shows the zenith angle, Azimuth angle and altitude angle.



Fig.No:2 Altitude angle, Zenith angle, Azimuth angle

Slope or Tilt angle ():
- It is angle of collector surface makes with the horizontal plane (ground).
- Fig shows the tilt angle of the solar pv panel in oreder to get the
maximum intensity of solar radiation.


Altitude angle ():
- It is the angle on the vertical plane between the suns rays and the
projection of the suns rays on the horizontal plane.
- Fig (2) shows the altitude angle.
- It is measured from the following expressions.

Altitude angle () = 90 - Z

Solar Azimuth angle (s):
- It is the angle on the horizontal plane measured from the south to the
horizontal projection of the suns rays.
- It is the angular displacement from the south of the projection of the
beam radiation on the horizontal plane.
- It is the angle between a due south line and the projection of the site to
sun on the horizontal plane.
- It is angle made in the horizontal plane between the horizontal line due
south and the projection of the line of sight of the sun on the horizontal
plane.
- Thus it gives the direction of the shadow cast in the horizontal plane by a
vertical rod.
- By convention, the solar azimuth angle is taken to be positive, if the
projection of the line of sight is east of south and negative if west of the
south.
- The solar azimuth angle is measured from the following expressions.

- Fig No:1 shows the solar azimuth angle.

Fig.No:1 Solar Azimuth angle

Surface Azimuth angle ():
- It is the angle measured on the horizontal plane from due south to the
horizontal projection normal to the surface.
- It also given as the angle between the local meridian and the horizontal
projection normal to the surface.
- It is Zero due to south.
- As the suns movement about the solar noon is symmetrical the preferred
orientation of a solar collector to receive maximum radiation would be
facing south (for collector in northern hemisphere).
- In other words, Azimuth angle is Zero (if the collector is oriented towards
south).
- The all the other azimuth angles, the radiation incident on the collector
would be less.
- However, the azimuth angle less than 30
0
, (east or west of south) the loss
in radiation is estimated to be less than 5%.
- Fig shows the surface azimuth angle.
-




-

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