Sun Path Analysis & Solar Position Calculator for Land Design
Visualize the sun's movement across your property with Swales.app's Sun Path Analysis — understand sunrise, sunset, solar noon, sun altitude, azimuth, daylight duration, and seasonal sun paths to design better homes, farms, food forests, solar installations, and regenerative landscapes.
What is the sun path?
The sun path is the apparent route that the sun follows across the sky during the day — rising in the east, reaching its highest point around midday, and setting in the west. This path changes throughout the year depending on your latitude, the season, and the date.
The sun influences nearly every aspect of land design — from building orientation and passive solar heating to food forest placement, greenhouse design, solar panel installation, and crop productivity.
Understanding how the sun moves across your specific property is essential for effective land planning, passive solar design, and sustainable development.
How Sun Path works in Swales.app
Once your location is selected, Swales.app automatically calculates your solar environment and draws the sun's path across the sky — creating an interactive solar map that shows how sunlight interacts with your property.
Sun position data — 9 metrics explained
The Sun Position panel provides detailed astronomical information for your selected location, updated in real time or for any date and time you choose.
🌅 Dawn
03:43 AM
Beginning of morning twilight — natural light appears before the sun rises above the horizon.
- ·Plan early farm operations
- ·Wildlife observation window
- ·Natural light without direct sun
- ·Gradual transition from night
☀️ Sunrise
04:36 AM
When the upper edge of the sun becomes visible above the horizon — the official start of daylight.
- ·Farm & irrigation scheduling
- ·Solar energy production start
- ·Outdoor work management
- ·Growing season planning
🔆 Solar Noon
01:07 PM
The sun reaches its highest point — solar radiation is strongest, shadows are shortest, and panels receive peak sunlight.
- ·Peak solar panel output
- ·Optimal building orientation
- ·Shade structure design
- ·Tree positioning
🌇 Sunset
09:38 PM
When the sun disappears below the horizon — end of direct sunlight for the day.
- ·Daily solar exposure window
- ·Growing condition evaluation
- ·Energy production end time
- ·Outdoor activity scheduling
🌆 Dusk
10:31 PM
End of evening twilight and transition into full nighttime — useful for lighting and farm management planning.
- ·Outdoor lighting design
- ·Security planning
- ·Farm management
- ·Wildlife observation
🌍 Sun Distance
151,890,847 km
Current distance between Earth and the Sun — provides astronomical context for solar calculations.
- ·Varies across the year
- ·Influences solar intensity
- ·Used in precise calculations
- ·Astronomical reference point
📐 Sun Altitude
54.58°
How high the sun appears above the horizon. 0° = horizon, 90° = directly overhead. Higher altitude = stronger sunlight and shorter shadows.
- ·Solar installation design
- ·Building orientation
- ·Greenhouse positioning
- ·Food forest planning
🧭 Sun Azimuth
141.35°
The compass direction of the sun. 141.35° indicates the sun is positioned southeast — critical for panel and window orientation.
- ·Solar panel orientation
- ·Building design
- ·Window placement
- ·Passive solar heating
⏱️ Daylight Duration
17h 01m 20s
Total daylight between sunrise and sunset. Longer days mean greater solar production and longer growing seasons.
- ·Solar energy production potential
- ·Growing season length
- ·Agricultural productivity
- ·Winter vs. summer planning
3 interactive controls to explore your sun data
Swales.app gives you three tools to move beyond a static snapshot and explore how sunlight behaves across time.
Live button
Real-time sun tracking
Press Live to see the sun's current position in the sky — altitude, azimuth, and daylight conditions update automatically.
- →Real-time sun location
- →Current altitude
- →Current azimuth
- →Current daylight conditions
Time slider
Scrub through the day
Move the slider forward or backward through any hour of the day. Sun position, altitude, azimuth, and shadow conditions update instantly.
- →Where will the sun be at 9 AM?
- →How much light at midday?
- →When does an area become shaded?
- →Full-day solar movement
Date selector
Explore seasonal sun paths
Change the date to compare seasonal sun movement — summer solstice vs. winter solstice, spring vs. autumn, any date of the year.
- →Summer sun positions
- →Winter sun positions
- →Spring & autumn conditions
- →Seasonal shading & energy output
Using Sun Path analysis for your land
Home design
Passive solar orientation
🌍 Northern hemisphere
- →South-facing windows
- →South-facing living spaces
- →South-facing solar panels
🌏 Southern hemisphere
- →North-facing windows
- →North-facing living spaces
- →North-facing solar panels
Solar panels
Optimise installation
- →Optimal panel orientation
- →Potential shading issues
- →Seasonal production differences
- →Best installation locations
Farms & permaculture
Ecological design
- →Food forest placement
- →Orchard design
- →Greenhouse positioning
- →Crop selection zones
- →Shade management
- →Livestock shelter placement
Why sun position analysis matters
Understanding solar behaviour throughout the year helps you create more resilient, productive, and sustainable properties. Sunlight affects every layer of land design:
Conclusion
The Sun Position & Sun Path feature in Swales.app transforms complex solar calculations into an intuitive visual experience.
By combining real-time sun tracking, seasonal analysis, daylight calculations, altitude and azimuth measurements, and interactive controls, users gain a deeper understanding of how sunlight interacts with their property.
Whether you're planning a home, farm, solar installation, greenhouse, food forest, or regenerative landscape — understanding the sun's movement is one of the most important steps in designing for long-term success. With Swales.app, the sun becomes another powerful layer of environmental intelligence.