this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
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Outside earths atmosphere. Only ~650 Watts/m^2 reach the surface of our planet.
Edit: I posted regurgitating some simplified assumption from a text book or something I must have read in the past, the 650 W/m² is wrong.
No that's not right, it's about 1000 watts/m2 on the surface. But it is on a totally clear day with the sun directly overhead. So depending on your latitude you get less per m2 because the Earth is round.
Wikipedia says it's 1361 watts per m2 just outside the atmosphere.
On the power outside the atmosphere I didn't comment because I was too lazy to look it up, the and I knew the number of the previous commenter was in the ballpark.
Regarding the surface: my apologies, I quoted a number from university that must have been a simplification for a calculation exercise, and I made the mistake of never thinking about it critically. Turns out I was wrong.