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babar90 t1_jaswwin wrote

Obliquity is very low. The irradiance is proportional to the squared distance, that means that the irradiance oscillates between x and 0.43 x depending on the season.

This is roughly equivalent to the seasonal irradiance oscillation that you'll have on earth at 45° latitude north.

But as PlaidBastard said this computation is meaningless, as the very slow rotation on Mercury makes the day vs night dominate the seasons.

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legendsplayminecraft OP t1_jatd5x3 wrote

how can you calculate that?

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babar90 t1_jatnibj wrote

Basic trignometry gives the irradiance curve, assuming that each region of the planet surface is disconnected from others (ie. no heat equation between day and night parts of the planet and whatever dominates its core temperature) and is at thermal equilibrium you can approximate the temperature with a constant time the 1/4th power of the irradiance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan%E2%80%93Boltzmann_law

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