The Altiplano plateau in the Atacama Desert is located near the Andes Mountains in Chile. It is about him that will be discussed. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Meteorological Society, this strip of land at an altitude of about 4,000 meters receives more sunlight than areas near the equator or at higher altitudes. The most interesting thing is that it is usually cold and dry here.

details of the study

Atacama is a special place because it is the oldest desert in the world and perhaps the clearest place to observe the night sky.

The Chilean Altiplano plateau, which is part of the desert, is distinguished by solar radiation, or the output of light energy from the Sun to the Earth. Scientists set a world record here – 2,177 watts per square meter. By comparison, the radiation in the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere is about 1,360 watts per square meter, according to the study.

This is actually the radiation you would get if you stood on Venus in the summer.
— says the study’s lead author and climatologist Raul Cordero, from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

This is a very meaningful comparison because Venus is about 28% closer to the Sun than Earth.

The average solar radiation on the plateau is about 308 watts per square meter; another world record is double that of Central Europe and the US East Coast.

When solar radiation passes through the atmosphere, it is absorbed by water vapor dispersed by clouds and aerosols. However, plateaus above the water vapor layer and with fewer clouds and aerosols will inevitably receive more sunlight.
– said NASA scientist Seiji Kato, who was not involved in the research.

Another reason why Chile is so sunny is the country’s geographic location in the Southern Hemisphere. This is especially true during the summer months when the Earth’s orbit approaches the Sun and reaches a point known as perihelion in early January, resulting in a 7% higher increase in solar radiation in the Southern Hemisphere compared to the Northern Hemisphere.