One goal of the Russian space program is to illuminate dark northern cities with sunlight reflected to the Earth from a 200 m diameter mirrored surface in orbit. Several smaller prototypes have already been constructed and put into orbit. (a) Assume that sunlight with intensity 1340 W/m2 falls on the mirror nearly perpendicularly and that the atmosphere o the Earth allows 85.5% of the energy of sunlight to pass though it in clear weather. What is the power received by a city when the space mirror is reflecting light to it? (b) The plan is for the reflected sunlight to cover a circle of diameter 8.00 km. What is the intensity of light (the average magnitude of the Poynting vector) received by the city? W/m2 (c) This intensity is what percentage of the vertical component of sunlight at St. Petersburg in winter, when the sun reaches an angle of 8.00° above the horizon at noon? %
One goal of the Russian space program is to illuminate dark northern cities with sunlight reflected to the Earth from a 200 m diameter mirrored surface in orbit. Several smaller prototypes have already been constructed and put into orbit. (a) Assume that sunlight with intensity 1340 W/m2 falls on the mirror nearly perpendicularly and that the atmosphere o the Earth allows 85.5% of the energy of sunlight to pass though it in clear weather. What is the power received by a city when the space mirror is reflecting light to it? (b) The plan is for the reflected sunlight to cover a circle of diameter 8.00 km. What is the intensity of light (the average magnitude of the Poynting vector) received by the city? W/m2 (c) This intensity is what percentage of the vertical component of sunlight at St. Petersburg in winter, when the sun reaches an angle of 8.00° above the horizon at noon? %
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