The electromagnetic radiation emitted from the Sun is called solar radiation. Almost all life on Earth evolved with the Sun as a major influence. The rising and setting Sun defined the daily cycle we still respond to biologically. This study investigates the yearly, monthly and daily variation of mass loss by the Sun for two locations; Gusau and Calabar situated across the Sahelian and Coastal climatic zones of Nigeria using daily, monthly and yearly global solar radiation meteorological data obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the period of twenty two years (July 1983 -June 2005. The energy available for utilization based on the mass loss by the Sun for the two locations was also investigated. The fluctuations in the results revealed that the mass loss by the Sun varies significantly from year to year, month to month and from day to day; thus, indicating that it is site dependent and strongly depends on the global solar radiation and solar activities in each of the locations.

Estimation of albedo is paramount in the evaluation of solar energy collectors, atmospheric radiative transfer and studies that relates to atmospheric thermal balance. This study, employed the shortwave solar energy balancing at the edge of the Earth's atmosphere to estimate and compare the variation of albedo for two locations, Gusau (Latitude 12.170N, Longitude 6.700E and altitude 463.9 m above sea level) and Calabar (Latitude 4.970N, Longitude 8.350E and altitude 61.9 m above sea level) situated across the Sahelian and Coastal climatic zones of Nigeria respectively using measured monthly mean daily meteorological parameter of global solar radiation obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the period of twenty two years (July 1983 -June 2005. The variation of albedo with clearness index, relative humidity and mean temperature were investigated. The variation of emitting Earth's surface temperature and maximum wavelength for each location were also investigated. The results in this study revealed that the estimated surface albedo depicts a direct opposite relationship with the clearness index, an inverse relationship with the emitting Earth's surface temperature and a direct relationship with the wavelength for the studied locations. The highest and lowest values of albedo simulated for Gusau was in the months of August and February with 0.4933 and 0.3270 respectively, while for Calabar are in the months of August and January with 0.6949 and 0.4218 respectively; the estimated albedo obtained for Calabar in this study are more than that of Gusau throughout the months for the period under investigation suggesting that as the location's latitude and global solar radiation increases the albedo or reflectance decreases. The variation of clearness index with albedo for Gusau suggests the availability of abundant global solar radiation throughout the months in the region while for Calabar revealed the availability of abundant global solar radiation only in the months of January, February and December. The emitting Earth surface temperature for Gusau ranged between 235.1297 K in August and 252.4133 K in February while for Calabar ranged between 207.1236 K in August and 243.0097 K in January, these values agrees closely to the standard emitting Earth surface temperature value (255.0000 K). The maximum emitting wavelength values for both locations revealed that the radiation is longwave and are found within the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The variation of relative humidity with albedo depicts almost a similar trend for both locations. The results showed that as albedo increases during the rainy season the mean temperature decreases.