Data from U.S. and European satellites from 1983 to 2005 were used to make the determination.

“For some reason there are fewer clouds just there than elsewhere,” Paul Stackhouse, a senior NASA scientist at the agency’s Langley, Va., facility told Reuters.

Researchers found that the sun blazes down with the greatest intensity on a patch of the Pacific south of Hawaii and east of the island of Kiribati.

A location near the ruins of a fort at Agadem, Niger, came in second with enough daily solar energy per square yard to power the average American home water heater for 24 hours.

Experts say they hope the project, which mapped levels of solar energy across the planet, will also provide a tool to advance research into climate change, health and agriculture.

Image: NASA         Digg This