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Title: Terrestrial service environments for selected geographic locations. Final report. [1965--1974 data; to define solar array environment to aid in encapsulation program]

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7217219· OSTI ID:7217219

This report contains results obtained from analyses of climatic, precipitation, air pollution, and other environmental data for the years 1965 to 1974 at nine widely different geographic locations in the United States (Albuquerque, N.M.; Bismarck, N.D.; Boston, Mass.; Brownsville, TX.; Cleveland, OH; Fairbanks, AK; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; and Phoenix, AZ). In addition to descriptive and diurnal statistics for 24 individual climatic variables, ''environmental cell'' statistics were computed to obtain the frequencies, durations, and transitions for the simultaneous occurrence of various combinations of environmental variables. Results are presented for the simultaneous occurrence of specific levels of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and insolation, in addition to representative results obtained for other combinations of variables. The results characterize the environmental conditions to which terrestrial solar arrays would be exposed over a 20-year lifetime, and serve to identify environmental factors and levels that can be used in testing candidate encapsulation materials and systems for such terrestrial exposures. An innovative methodology was applied to obtain these results for combinations of environmental variables. Because of its generality and demonstrated feasibility, it is concluded that the methodology also has broad applications to other testing programs.

Research Organization:
Battelle Columbus Labs., OH (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
NAS-7-100-954328
OSTI ID:
7217219
Report Number(s):
ERDA/JPL/954328-76/5
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English