The Solar Pathfinder™ device uses a highly polished, transparent, convex plastic dome to give a panoramic view of the entire site. All the trees, buildings or other obstacles to the sun are plainly visible as reflections on the surface of the dome. The sun-path diagram can be seen through the transparent dome at the same time. The Solar Pathfinder™ works on a reflective principle rather than actually showing shadows, so it can be used any time of the day or year, in cloudy or clear weather. The actual position of the sun at the time of the solar site analysis is irrelevant.

By combining the site-specific shading data of the Solar Pathfinder™ with the published global weather data, an accurate solar site analysis can be made. This insolation data, on an hourly and monthly basis can then be applied to architectural, engineering, solar, and ecological applications.