WEATHER · SUNSHINE
Sunshine
Sunshine — the direct beam sunlight actually reaching the ground right now (W/m²), painted worldwide as the honest positive opposite of Cloud Cover. Dark where the sun is blocked by thick cloud or it is night, bright gold under clear skies; the bright band sweeps around the planet with the day-night line as you scrub the timeline. Direct beam only (not diffuse or total sun), so it collapses toward zero under heavy cloud. Tap the map for the local value.
What it shows
Sunshine shows how much direct sunlight is actually reaching the ground right now, measured as the beam radiation in watts per square metre. It is the honest positive companion to Cloud Cover: clouds are what block this light, so where the cloud map is bright the sunshine map goes dark. This is direct BEAM sunlight only — the light coming straight from the Sun\u2019s disc — not the softer diffuse glow scattered across an overcast sky, and not a combined total, so it collapses toward zero under thick cloud and peaks under clear skies. It is a forecast field from the DWD ICON model, running forward along the timeline.
How to read it
Dark means little or no direct sun — either night (the value is zero everywhere the Sun is down) or a sky blocked by heavy cloud. Deepening gold through to near-white marks stronger and stronger clear-sky sun, topping out near 1,000 W/m\u00b2 under a high midday Sun. The most striking thing is motion: press play and watch the bright band sweep around the planet with the day-night line, brightest along the strip where it is local midday under clear skies. Read it against Cloud Cover to see exactly where cloud is stealing the sunshine, and alongside the UV Index — the other sun-driven field — for how strong and how harmful that sunlight is. Tap the map for the value at any spot.
SEE IT LIVE
Open the full weather console with sunshine on, then stack other overlays and scrub the forecast.