2023-10-23 20:00:00
Free webinar! Next Wednesday, 10/25, we will analyze the keys to the 75 years of the Arab-Israeli conflict together with professor Ignacio Alvárez-Ossorio Alvariño. Limited places!
Enjoy National Geographic Special Editions at an exclusive price for being a subscriber.
Did you know that, despite being 61 million kilometers closer to the Sun than the Earth, there is a point on our planet that receives as much solar radiation as Venus? This is a fascinating fact since, as the light travels a longer path, it would normally be that part of that radiation would be lost along the way and the result would be an area irradiated by a much less intense light. And no, that landmark is not Everest, as you are probably thinking, but the Atacama Desertin Chile.
Video: Curiosities about Venus
It can be said that it is a most privileged plateau because, in addition to being crowned with the title of point of the planet with the greatest radiation, it is also the driest non-polar desert in the world and the driest area of the globe, that is, it brings together an endless number of notable titles. But what kind of characteristics does he have to be able to be awarded with all those records? Well, everything seems to derive from a mixture of meteorological and atmospheric factors that make it a space like no other.
ATACAMA DESERT
Located between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountain range, Atacama is a desert that covers an area of almost 105,000 km2, extending through the natural regions of the Norte Grande and Norte Chico of Chile. This is an extremely arid and drywhere the fauna and flora are highly conditioned by this drought: the vegetation, for example, is reduced to different species of cacti.
Although it is an area of high temperatures in which, during the day, these can be between 25ºC and 50ºC in the shade, during the night the temperature can suffer violent fluctuations, dropping to -25ºC in certain areas. . However, these variations remain constant throughout the yearwithout changing in summer or winter, as it is an area located on the edge of the Tropic of Capricorn.
iStock
The drought in the area reduces the vegetation present in the desert to certain species of cacti.
The Atacama Desert represents an area of special interest in the geographical study of the planet due to its multiple characteristics, which make it the driest and most arid desert in the world, the one located at the highest altitude and, most interestingly, the region of the planet that receives a increased solar radiation. Specifically, this last aspect has its maximum in a small area located 40 km east of San Pedro de Atacama and 1,708 km from Santiago de Chile, more than 4,000 meters high above sea level.
The oldest mummies
RADIATION RECORD
Thus, this same year, the American Meteorological Society published in a study the results of five years of sunshine measurements in that specific area of the desert. The data had been obtained by placing a series of pyranometers on the affected surface, which are devices that achieve measure irradiation solar meticulously. With this system, the researchers obtained much higher than expected values of solar radiation: the global horizontal shortwave irradiance are 308 W/m^2, which represents 2.7 MW/m^2 annually. However, during the solstices, this value increases even more, reaching 2.000 W/m^2.
These are truly exciting results for the scientific community, as they correspond to data greater than those found for the highest area of Mount Everest, or for the surface of Venus. But why does this happen in the Atacama Desert? Well, experts confirm that it is a combination of various factors, among which are the latitude and geographic location so close to the equator, the lack of cloudshumidity or aerosols in the atmosphere that allows the direct passage of solar rays without deflection, the altitude of the areao la topography of the desert, since, as it consists of different mountains and valleys, it can focus solar radiation in certain areas, concentrating it even more.
iStock
The Atacama Desert is the driest non-polar desert on Earth. Delimited by the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Andes mountain range to the east, it has a length of almost 1,600 kilometers and a width of 180 kilometers.
ARIDITY AND DROUGHT
In turn, the Atacama Desert occupies the position of driest and most arid non-polar area on the planet. In fact, certain simulations attempting to recreate the environmental conditions of the surface of Mars have taken place on it. This is due to a very simple aspect: it does not rain in the desert.
This is a consequence of a current known as humboldt current that flows along the west coast of South America northward and helps keep Pacific Ocean temperatures low near the Chilean coast. As a result, it creates a stability of the air that contributes to the reduction of cloud formation.
So much so that it is estimated that there are areas of the desert where It hasn’t rained for decades.. In fact, the average annual rainfall is only 15 mm, something completely insignificant. However, at the end of the 2010s there were a couple of years where the rains were somewhat more intense, which experts described as “the first significant rains in the Atacama Desert in the last 500 years.”
#Atacama #Desert #point #Earth #highest #solar #radiation