The solar radiation on this planet is nearly insensible.
The angle which the earth's axis makes with the plane in which the planet revolves round the sun determines the varying seasonal distribution of solar radiation over the surface and the mathematical zones of climate.
Edmond Becquerel was associated with his father in much of his work, but he himself paid special attention to the study of light, investigating the photochemical effects and spectroscopic characters of solar radiation and the electric light, and the phenomena of phosphorescence, particularly as displayed by the sulphides and by compounds of uranium.
The connexion that seemed to be first established was between variations in the quantity of water transported from the tropical to the sub-polar Atlantic and variations in the intensit y of solar radiation.
Helland-Hansen and Nansen showed later that it was improbable that variations in the northerly drift of Atlantic water could be traced directly to variations in the quantity of heat received by the sea from solar radiation.
