Northern Chile is for lovers

I saw this hype yesterday on the Andean altiplano: that it gets comparable flux as Venus L4 gets. That is: 1.6 times what Earth L4 gets (2,177 v 1,360). NASA reports that Venus gets 2,600 for 1.9 times but hey; Altiplano still gets a lot, and maybe it reaches that 1.9 range at noon.

Irradiance is not temperature. It's cold in the Altiplano, colder than present Denver. That's because at 4 km up it's higher than the Mile High City, so gets less air (ozone especially) for a shield or a redistributor.

I learnt here that this flux changes on the planets; and not just by "derrr day/night". On Earth first the Southern Hemisphere matches eccentricity with tilt; which stacking of daylight hours with proximity I could have guessed if I'd thought about it. Altiplano summer should own the true Earth temperature at perihelion, as Mauna Kea summer might own its temperature at aphelion. But I didn't see those factors multiplying flux 1.6 times.

The key here is cloudcover. Clouds don't just shade; over the Altiplano, they reflect too.

The flux, then, is all coming down upon the same patch. Compare Venus' "habitable" layer: those clouds are all beneath, offering some attenuated flux from below which won't stack as much upon the flux from the bare Sun. Altiplano lives under the magnifying-glass.

Now, why am I commenting on this now; why do I care. I didn't care at first (the hype annoyed me) - but then, on my way to Oppenheimer, I started thinking that Altiplano would be a fine place to test gadgets expected for Venus. Such gadgets would be better still for Hohmann taxis between Venus and Earth where the insolation would range from Venus' to Earth's. They would also work for the aforementioned flux-from-beneath if we're floating Venerean balloons.

My main worry at present is solar-panels, which degrade in high British "temperatures". Is temperature an atmospheric temperature; or is it due to too much sunlight? Given that the decadence was noted near sealevel pressures I suspect the former. But that's why we test.