MapMaster 3

A map shows areas of insolation (incoming solar radiation) across the world, categorized by watts per square meter.

The map illustrates global insolation, showing variations in incoming solar radiation from the tropics to the polar regions. In the Northern Hemisphere, high insolation (220 to 280 plus watts per square meter), highlighted as dark green to dark red spans from northwestern Mexico through southern Texas, Florida, and the Caribbean, across the Atlantic to North Africa and Southwest Asia, with peaks in the eastern Sahara and Arabian Peninsula. In the Southern Hemisphere, high insolation areas stretch from East Africa to South Africa and across the Indian Ocean to most of Australia, with other high insolation zones in the Central Pacific and south-central South America. Middle insolation values (120 to 219 watts per square meter), highlighted as light blue to green, are found between 50 degrees north and 50 degrees south latitude, excluding high insolation regions. Low insolation areas (80 to 119 watts per square meter), highlighted as blue to light blue, are located north of the 50-degree lines to the poles in North America, the North Atlantic, and Eurasia, and around the Southern Ocean in Antarctica. The lowest insolation values (less than 80 watts per square meter), highlighted as dark blue, are in the ocean east of northern Greenland.