Question

How much energy does the earth receive from the sun per second?

Answer 1

This radiation is the energy that heats the Earth. The sun's surface emits about 63 million watts of energy per square meter.

At the upper reaches of our atmosphere, the energy density of solar radiation is approximately 1,368 W/m2 (watts per square meter). At the Earth's surface, the energy density is reduced to approximately 1,000 W/m2 for a surface perpendicular to the Sun's rays at sea level on a clear day.

At any moment, the sun emits about 3.86 x 1026 watts of energy. So add 24 zeros to the end of that number, and you'll get an idea of how unimaginably large an amount of energy that is! Most of that energy goes off into space, but about 1.74 x 1017 watts strikes the earth.