Discussion thread for Rock star climate.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t all the solar power be incident on the surface area of a hemisphere and not circle? In which case, the total solar energy reaching Earth would be S2piR^2.
Disregard my previous comment. I now understand why the area of a circle is used to simplify the calculation. It blocks the same amount of light/energy received from the sun, and doesn’t require adjusting the solar constant.