sunshine

sun·shine   (sŭn'shīn')    n.   The light or the direct rays from the sun. The warmth given by the sun's rays. A location or surface on which the sun's rays fall. Radiant cheerfulness; geniality. A source of cheerfulness. Radiant cheerfulness; geniality. A source of cheerfulness. adj.  Requiring governmental bodies to hold open meetings and sometimes to permit public access to records: a sunshine law. sun'shin'y adj.

Main Entry: sun·shine
Function: adjective
: forbidding or restricting closed meetings of legislative or executive bodies and sometimes providing for public access to government records <sunshine laws> —see also Freedom of Information Act in the IMPORTANT LAWS section

sunshine

solar radiation that is visible at the Earth's surface. The amount of sunlight is dependent on the extent of the daytime cloud cover. Some places on the Earth receive more than 4,000 hours per year of sunlight (more than 90 percent of the maximum possible), as in the Sahara; others receive less than 2,000 hours, as in regions of frequent storminess, such as Scotland and Iceland. Over much of the middle-latitude region of the world, the amount of sunlight varies regularly as the day progresses, owing to greater cloud cover in the early morning and during the late afternoon.

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