Questions about Solar Energy - Solar Radiance above the atmosphere (in space) versus on the ground.?

Question

I assume that solar energy is lost due to interference of the atmosphere. That is, the sunlight is more intense before its gets difused/dispersed when it reaches earth. Is this correct? What is the diffence in temp/heat/energy say 100 miles up versus at sea level. Is there a formula that relates altitude to solar energy? Also, does Ozone absorb solar energy? How much/what rate?

Your feedback is much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Yes the sun's radiation is absorbed and reflected by the atmosphere.

The wikipedia entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_radia...

on solar radiation actually tells you a lot of what you want to know.

Most (but not all) visible light makes it the the ground.

Anything shortward of ~300nm wavelength does not! (That's most of the UV, all x-rays and gamma rays). A lot of the infrared is absorbed by greenhouse gases (water, CO2 etc), and most radio waves make it to the ground, but very long wavelength radio waves are reflected by the ionosphere!