Dear Jonathan,
Irradiance is defined as "Radiant flux of any origin INCIDENT onto an area
element".
Radiant flux density is defined as "Radiant flux of any origin CROSSING
an area element".
Both have units W m-2.
Regards
Burkhardt
Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory at reading.ac.uk>
Gesendet von: cf-metadata-bounces at cgd.ucar.edu
26.08.2003 09:10
An: cf-metadata at cgd.ucar.edu
Kopie:
Thema: [CF-metadata] standard name proposals
Dear John
> As little as I understand it, isn't radiative flux actually just in
units of
> Watts, while irradiance takes the "per unit area" into account?
Ah. Yes, another complication is that what we refer to as "flux" in the
standard names is actually "flux density" in physics terms i.e. W m-2. We
had
quite a lot of discussion about this and it was thought we should take
this
approach because "flux" almost universally means something m-2 in atmos
and
ocean modelling at least.
So I should rephrase my question. Is there any difference between
irradiance
and radiative flux density?
Cheers
Jonathan
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