Solar atlas
The earth's main primary energy source is the sun. Solar radiation determines the atmosphere's energy balance and consequently our climate. This leads us to the question of how to use this energy potential.
On this account, the Department of Urban Climatology within the Office for Environmental Protection of the City of Stuttgart placed an order with
Dr.-Ing. Peter Goretzki (webpage available in German) 
, an engineering office specialised on the efficient use of solar energy in urban planning, in the autumn of 1994 to calculate the solar radiation data for the territory of Stuttgart. The calculations included the incident solar radiation depending on topographic conditions, i.e. under consideration of superelevations and the resulting shadowing as well as the exposure and inclination of the irradiated area segments. A distinction was made between direct and diffuse solar radiation and the total radiation. The calculations were made by the
GOSOL II computer programme (webpage available in German) . GOSOL II places buildings and vegetation into a topographic computer model, which can also be used for the comprehensive calculation of the irradiation on larger, unbuilt territories without vegetation - as it is the case here.
The results have been available since 10 January 1995. Parts of the results were first published on the
CD-ROM "Urban Climate 21" (available in English and in German) and they are now the basis for the drawing up of the solar atlas. The mapping software Surfer 6.0 was used for the visualisation. The solar radiation in the area under consideration can be quantified for each month or for the whole year on the basis of these solar radiation maps.
These maps can be used in the context of active and passive solar architecture as well as in the agricultural sector, especially for wine growing.
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| © City of Stuttgart, Office for Environmental Protection, Section of Urban Climatology |
