Five major physiographic regions may be differentiated in Germany. The North German Lowlands, a flat region, extends south from the north and the Baltic Sea coast. It is part of the Great Plain of Europe. To the south of the lowlands is the borderland a transitional belt of thinly layered morainic material with highly fertile loess soil. The Central Uplands are a fertile area heavily forested consisting of dissected hills, inactive volcanoes, calcarous plateaus, and granite massifs. The Alpine Foreland, located to the north of the Alps, has the appearance of a broad plain. Rivers rising in the Alps cross the foreland in broad, marshy valleys. Finally a small part of the Alps lies within Germany, in the extreme south.
Germany´s climate is generally temperate. Because of moist, warm winds from the Atlantic Ocean, the north and the west experiences fairly mild winters and summers. The average annual temperature in northwestern Germany is about 10°C; in the southwest it averages 12°C yearly. The southeast experiences a more continental climate with cold winters and short, hot summers. Annual temperatures average about 2°C to 4°C lower than in the west. Baltic Sea harbours are sometimes closed by ice during the winter. Precipitation is evenly distributed throughout Germany, with the heaviest rainfall from 864 to 1,016 mm, occurring in the highlands. The coast has an annual average precipitation of 762 mm, and the east receives from 406 to 508 mm.
Total population is 83,536,115 (World Factbook, July 1996 est.). The population density is about 228 persons per sq km. German cities with population of more than 500,000, in order of size, are Berlin, Hamburg, Munchen, Koln, Frankfurt am Main, Essen, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Bremen, Duisburg and Hannover.
Stations from the IDMP Network measure both daylight and solar radiation.

IDMP Network/Freiburg

Lat.: 47°59' N
Long.: 7°50' E
Height above sea level: 280 m

Christian Reise
Fraunhofer Institut für Solare Energiesysteme
Oltmannsstrasse 579100
Freiburg, Germany
Tel: +49 761 458 82 82
Fax: +49 761 458 82 17
E-mail: reise@ise.fhg.de

 IDMP Network/Hamburg

Lat.: 53°36' N
Long.: 10°06' E
Height above sea level: 49 m

Dr. G. Czeplak
Deutscher Wetterdienst Meteorologisches Observatorium
HamburgFrahmredder 95D -
22393 Hamburg-Sasel, Germany
Tel: +49 40 60173 200
Fax: +49 40 60173 299

Clock Time: GMT+1. Summer time shift (GMT+2), from last Sunday in March,
to Saturday before last Sunday in October.

  1. "Tageslicht in Innenräumen" Deutsche Norm DIN 5034, Teil 2. Beuth Verlag GmbH, 10787 Berlin, 1985. ("Daylighting in buildings").

  2. "Handbuch für Beleuchtung" ecomed-Fachverlag, Justus-von-Liebig-str.1, 8910 Landsberg, 1992. ("Handbook for lighting").
  1. "Statistik der Globalstrahlung an acht Stationen des Deutschen Wetterdienstes" Ber. des Deutschen Wetterdienstes, Nr. 156, Offenbach, 1981. ("Statistic on the global solar radiation at eight sites of the German Weather Service").

  2. "Über die Berechnung der zur Verfügung stehenden Solarenergie und des Tageslichtes" Aydinli, S. Fortschrittsberchte der VDI-Zeitschriften 6, 79, VDI-Verlag GmbH, Düsseldorf, 1981. ("On the calculation of the available solar energy and daylight").

  3. "A simple parameterization of pyrheliometric formula for determining the Linke turbidity factor" Kasten, F. Meteorologische Rundschau 33, 124-127, 1980.

  4. "Experimentelle Untersuchungen des Tageslichtangebotes und dessen Auswirkungen auf Innenraumbeleuchtung", Heuser, W. Dissertation, Technische Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Umwelttechnik D83, 1991. ("Experimental investigations on daylighting and its effect on indoor illumination").

  5. "Auswirkungen der Tageslichtnutzung auf das energetische Verhalten von Bürogebäuden" Szerman, M. Dissertation, Universität Stuttgart, Lehrstuhl für konstruktive Bauphysik, 1994. ("Effects to the daylight on the energetics of office-buildings").
Normenausschub Lichttechnik im DIN (FNL)
Dr. M. Seidel
Burggrafeustrabe 6
D-10787 Berlin, Germany
Tel: +49 30 26012439
Fax: +49 30 26011723
CIE on the Internet.

 Deutscher Wetterdienst
Dr. K. Dehne
Meteorologishes Observatorium Potsdam - Telegrafenberg
D-14473 Potsdam, Germany
Tel: +49 331 316500
Fax: +49 331 316591
Technische Universität Berlin
Dr. S. Aydinli
Institut für Lichttechnik
Einsteinufer 19
D-10587 Berlin
Tel: +49 30 31423489
Fax: +49 30 31422162		 Fraunhofer Institut für Bauphysik
Ing. H. Erhorn
Nobelstrabe 12
D-70569 Stuttgart
Tel: +49 711 97000
Fax: +49 711 9703399

 

More information is available at Amadeus or the Electric Library

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