Solar azimuth angle be interpreted as the angle between zero and 180 degrees when the hour angle, "h", is negative (morning) and the angle between 180 and 360 degrees when the hour angle, "h", is positive (afternoon). (These two formulas are equivalent if you assume the "solar elevation angle" approximation formula). The formulas use the following terminology: Solar azimuth angle The solar azimuth angle is the azimuth angle of the Sun's position. This horizontal coordinate defines the Sun's relative direction along the local horizon, whereas the solar zenith angle (or its complementary angle solar elevation) defines the Sun's apparent altitude. There are several
Small-angle approximation approximately 60 degrees. The formulas for addition and subtraction involving a small angle may be used for interpolating between trigonometric table values: Example: sin(0.755) Small-angle approximation The small-angle approximation is a useful simplification of the basic trigonometric functions which is approximately true in the limit where the angle approaches zero. They are truncations of the Taylor series for the basic trigonometric functions to a second-order approximation. This truncation gives: where is the angle in radians. The small angle approximation is useful in many areas of engineering and physics, including mechanics, electromagnetics, optics (where it forms the basis of the paraxial