Solar Radiation Simulation

The sky hemisphere is divided into 151 equal zones.
Each zone is assigned a solar radiation value specific to the climate. This represents the annual contribution towards solar radiation from each sky zone.

(Tregenza, 1987)

Instead of tracing light beams from the source, light beams are traced from a target towards the light source. In this case, the solar radiation contributed by the sun rays are calculated by tracing a light path from the target towards the sun location.

In the event of an obstruction, light ray is terminated and the target is shaded.

Solar radiation is the amount of solar energy recieved. The total across the whole climate year is summed and presented as a cumulative value.

These cumulative values are then mapped to the measurement points to visualise the distribution of energy across the facade.