Atmospheric Water Vapor Pressure over Land Surfaces: A Generic Algorithm with Data Input Limited to Air Temperature, Precipitation and Geographic Location

Summary A lack of information for surface water vapor pressure (WVP) represents a major impediment to model-assisted ecosystem analysis for understanding plant-environment interactions or for projecting biospheric responses to global climate change. This paper reports on a generic algorithm that captures global variation in monthly WVP. The algorithm solves WVP in terms of reduction from saturation WVP as a negative exponential function of potential evapotranspiration; the reduction rate per unit potential evapotranspiration in turn varies with monthly precipitation and a series of variables that distinguish local climate regimes. Data input to the algorithm is limited to monthly air temperature and precipitation, plus latitude, longitude and elevation. The algorithm is specified through regression fitting to monthly climate normal data from 852 stations around the world. It accounts for 96% of the variance in the WVP data, with a root mean square error of 0.17 kPa, or 12% of the data mean. The algorithm closely reproduces five-year sequential monthly WVP data for each of five selected United States locations representitative of diverse climate regimes: the average error generally falls within ±12% of the data mean, and the absolute error within ±0.2 kPa. Its projections also compare favorably against the WVP output from the General Circulation Models for temperature and precipitation conditions under the scenario of a doubled atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentration: the two fall within ±10% of each other for 75% of a total 264 data cases, or within ±20% for 94% of the cases. These statistics suggest that the spatially-based algorithm is useful for projecting temporal variation in WVP, and for extrapolative applications beyond the fluctuation range of present climate. Received March 4, 1999     

North Sea – Caspian Pattern (NCP) – an upper level atmospheric teleconnection affecting the eastern Mediterranean – implications on the regional climate

Summary ?A calendar of the negative and positive phases of the North Sea – Caspian Pattern (NCP) for the period 1958–1998 was used to analyse the implication of the NCP upper level teleconnections on the regional climate of the eastern Mediterranean basin. Series of monthly mean air temperature and monthly total rainfall from 33 stations across Greece, Turkey and Israel, for the same period, were used. For each month, from October to April, averages of the monthly mean temperatures and the monthly rainfall totals as well as the standardized values of both parameters were calculated separately for the negative (NCP (−)) and the positive (NCP (+)) phases of the NCP. At all stations and in all months, temperature values were significantly higher during the NCP (−) as compared with the NCP (+). Furthermore, apart from very few exceptions, the absolute monthly mean maximum and monthly mean minimum values were obtained during the NCP (−) and the NCP (+) phases, respectively. The maximum impact of the NCP on mean air temperature was detected in the continental Anatolian Plateau, where the mean seasonal differences are around 3.5 °C. This influence decreases westwards and southwards. The influence on the rainfall regime is more complex. Regions exposed to the southern maritime trajectories, in Greece and in Turkey, receive more rainfall during the NCP (−) phase, whereas in the regions exposed to the northern maritime trajectories, such as Crete in Greece, the Black Sea region in Turkey, and in all regions of Israel, there is more rainfall during the NCP (+) phase. The accumulated rainfall differences between the two phases are over 50% of the seasonal average for some stations. A comparison of the capabilities of the NCP, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Southern Oscillation (SO) indices to differentiate between below and above normal temperatures was made. The results have placed the NCP, as the best by far of all three teleconnections in its ability to differentiate between below or above normal temperatures and as the main teleconnection affecting the climate of the Balkans, the Anatolian Peninsula and the Middle East. These results may serve to downscale General Circulation Model (GCM) scenarios to a regional scale and provide forecasts regarding eventual temperature and/or precipitation changes. Received June 25, 2001; revised February 25, 2002; accepted March 3, 2002     

A Model to Interpolate Monthly Mean Climatological Data at Bavarian Forest Climate Stations

Summary  Six methods were used to interpolate the monthly mean climatological data from German climate stations to three Bavarian forest climate stations. The observed forest climatological data at the Bavarian forest climate stations were used as the reference data to which the interpolated data were compared. The results show that, for monthly mean daily maximum temperature at valley and plain forest climate stations, each of the six interpolation methods can give accurate estimates. For monthly mean daily maximum temperature, minimum temperature, air temperature and water vapor pressure at mountain forest climate stations, topographically aided interpolation can give the most accurate estimates. Barnes interpolation combined with empirical transfer functions can give accurate estimates forall climate variables at the plain and valley forest climate stations, and it can also give accurate estimates for monthly mean wind speed and monthly precipitation at the mountain forest climate station. The empirical transfer functions are very important for estimating the forest climatological data. These transfer functions will be used for reconstruction of long-term forest climatological data in Bavaria. Received September 9, 1998 Revised May 21, 1999     

Variations of 500 hPa flow patterns over Iranand surrounding areas and their relationship with the climate of Iran

Summary In order to explore the spatial and temporal variations of 500 hPa flow patterns and their relationship with the climate of Iran, monthly mean geopotential heights for the region 0° E to 70° E and 20° N to 50° N, at 5 degree resolution, were analysed. The study period covered the winter months October to March during the period 1961–90. The monthly height of the 500 hPa level was averaged along each meridian from 25° N to 45° N. The height of the mean monthly pressure pattern was mapped against the study years. The results showed that the characteristics of the 500 hPa flow pattern varied over monthly and annual time scales. Principal Component Analysis, with S-mode and Varimax rotation, was also used to reduce the gridded data to 5 (6 in October) significant factors. The factor scores for each month were then correlated with monthly Z-scores of precipitation and temperature anomalies over Iran. The results showed that troughs and ridges located close to Iran had more influence on the climate of Iran. Two troughs were identified and named the Caspian and Syrian troughs. Received April 12, 2001 Revised July 24, 2001     

Interpolation of Daily Global Solar Radiation with Thin Plate Smoothing Splines

Summary Thin plate smoothing splines incorporating topographic dependence were used to interpolate daily global solar radiation in the Bavarian forest ecosystem monitoring network, with the degree of data smoothing determined by minimizing the generalized cross validation. A simple cross validation method was used to discuss the spatial distribution of mean relative errors at 18 forest climate stations. The results show that, from this network 14%–30% mean relative errors can be expected for most of these forest climate stations in summer, and 20%–30% mean relative errors can be found at a few of forest climate stations in winter. Time-averaging can reduce these interpolation errors. In this network a mean relative error of 10% can be expected for weekly and biweekly mean solar radiation at most of forest climate stations in summer. Large errors are related to low radiation amount under heavy cloud cover. Mean relative errors increase as daily global solar radiation decreases. Received April 20, 1999 Revised January 20, 2000     

Internal Variability as a Cause of Qualitative Intermodel Disagreement on Anthropogenic Climate Changes

Summary The qualitative agreement of two climate models, HADCM2 and ECHAM3, on the response of surface climate to anthropogenic climate forcing in the period 2020 – 2049 is studied. Special attention is paid to the role of internal climate variability as a source of intermodel disagreement. After illustrating the methods in an intermodel comparison of simulated changes in June–August mean precipitation, some global statistics are presented. Excluding surface air temperature, the four-season mean proportion of areas in which the two models agree on the sign of the climatic response is only 53 – 60% both for increases in CO₂ alone and for increases in CO₂ together with direct radiative forcing by sulphate aerosols, but somewhat larger, 59 – 70% for the separate aerosol effect. In areas where the response is strong (at least twice the standard error associated with internal variability) in both models, the agreement is better and the contrast between the different forcings becomes more marked. The proportion of agreement in such areas is 57 – 75% for the response to increases in CO₂ alone, 64 – 84% for the response to combined CO₂ and aerosol forcing, and as high as 88 – 94% for the separate aerosol effect. The relatively good intermodel agreement for aerosol-induced climate changes is suggested to be associated with the uneven horizontal distribution of aerosol forcing. Received December 2, 1998 Revised May 5, 1999     

A numerical study of the influence of urban expansion on monthly climate in dry autumn over the Pearl River Delta, China

Summary In this study, we employed a regional model to simulate the impact of urban expansion on monthly climate in Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. Two experiments were performed by prescribing two different land covers in the PRD region. One land cover represents vegetation in the 1970s which is derived from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) data with 24-category (hereafter referred to as NU). The other land cover represents the current urban condition which is derived from remote sensing data acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) in 2004 (hereafter referred to as HU). Using the two land cover datasets, monthly climate of October 2004 was simulated, which was a very dry season in the PRD region. The results obtained from the numerical simulation show a distinct difference in simulated shelter-level temperature, humidity, surface fluxes and the height of planetary boundary layer (PBL) with two different land cover data sets being specified. The maximum difference in simulated monthly mean temperature over urban areas was 0.9 °C. A large temperature difference was found in urbanized area in Guangzhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan and Shenzhen. The monthly mean relative humidity in urban areas decreased by 1.4% as a result of urban expansion (from 59.2% in NU to 57.8% in HU). The maximum decrease in mixing ratio was 0.4 g/kg in Guangzhou and Dongguan, whereas the maximum decrease in relative humidity was 2.4%. There was an increase of sensible heat flux in developed lands and the maximum increase was 90 W m⁻². In contrast, latent hear flux in urban area decreased and the maximum decrease was 300 W m⁻². In addition, the increase in mean height of PBL ranged from 20 to 80 m (HU compared with NU), and the maximum change of the height was 180 m over urban area in city of Guangzhou.     

The relationship between lightning activity and surface wet bulb temperature and its variation with latitude in Australia

Summary Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) is the driving force for thunderstorm development. CAPE is closely controlled by wet bulb temperature. The lightning activity measured by a network of ten lightning flash counters widely distributed across continental Australia was studied as a function of wet bulb temperature. At each of the stations, the monthly total of lightning ground flashes, N, increased sharply with the increase of the monthly mean daily maximum wet bulb temperature, T_w, max. The dependence was strongest in the tropics and became less pronounced at temperate latitudes. In Darwin (latitude 12° S), the lightning ground flash activity increased by over three orders of magnitude over a 7 °C range of T_w, max. The corresponding increases for Coffs Harbour (latitude 30° S) and for Melbourne (latitude 38° S) were about one and a half orders of magnitude and about half an order of magnitude, respectively, each over a 10 °C range of T_w, max. Power law approximations were derived for each of the ten stations and showed that the logarithm of N was directly proportional to the power, P, of T_w, max. The value of P showed a sharp exponential decrease with increasing latitude away from the equator.     

Decreasing teleconnections with inter-site distance in monthly climatic data and tree-ring width networks in a mountainous Alpine area

Summary The similarities in time series recorded at sites which are distant from each other are called teleconnections. In this paper, the loss of such correlations with inter-site distance was investigated for both climatic and dendrochronological data sets, with 70 tree-ring chronologies. A dense network of weather stations was studied in the southeastern French Alps, covering complex climatic gradients over three departments. 78 sites with precipitation data (with a total of 48 756 monthly values), and 48 stations that recorded temperature (with 20 722 monthly mean values) were analysed. In the same area, four coniferous species (mountain pine and stone pine, European larch and Norway spruce) provided 37 ring-width chronologies for high elevation sites near the timberline. Both silver fir and Norway spruce provided a second tree-ring chronology network for 33 different sites at lower elevations. The teleconnections between precipitation series were found to be higher than those observed for temperature over short distances, but the maximum threshold distance was lower (193 km) compared to a positive correlation distance that exceeds 500 km for temperature. The maximum temperatures had stronger teleconnections than minimum values (522 km versus 476 km), since the latter are linked more with other site factors, such as slope, exposure and local topography. As expected, the tree-ring chronologies showed weaker teleconnections than the climatic series, with a threshold distance of 374 km obtained for all high elevation forests. The coniferous species with high intra-specific teleconnections over large distances were, in decreasing importance, Pinus uncinata (> 500 km), Picea abies (477 km), Pinus cembra (over 254 km) and Larix decidua (over 189 km only). The two former species showed the highest intra-specific correlations (with mean correlation R=0.625 and 0.666). The dendrochronological teleconnections were found to have a extent lesser for trees species that depend on rainfall (such as larch, and stone pine). They are enhanced, however, for temperature sensitive species such as spruce and mountain pine (a drought resistant tree). Therefore, these two latter conifers appear to be especially suitable for climatic reconstruction over large distances in mountainous areas. However, teleconnections within silver fir (Abies alba) and spruce chronologies were sharply reduced (over 131 km and 135 km) in lower elevation forests, underlining the interest of timberline forests for dendroclimatology. A better knowledge of the spatial correlations in climatic series and ring-width data may enable the optimisation of weather station networks. It may also permit a better choice of weather stations used for dendroclimatology, either for tree-ring and climate relationship calibration or for climate reconstructions. In dendrochronology, wood dating also requires the knowledge of to what extent remote ring-width chronologies can be used. Received September 11, 2000 Revised March 26, 2001     

On the vertical profile of surface radiative fluxes in southwest Germany

Summary Vertical profile of surface radiative fluxes in an area of heterogeneous terrain in south-west Germany is presented. Main data sets utilized for the study were recorded during the REgio KLIma Projekt (REKLIP). Supporting observational data were provided by the German weather service and German geophysical consultant service. Elevation of the study sites ranged from 212 m a.s.l. to 1489 m a.s.l. From May to September, monthly mean albedo was generally low at the study sites, ranging from 19% to 24%. For the other months, monthly mean albedo lie between 22% and 25% at the lowland site but extended between 27% and 71% at the highly elevated mountain site. Following the altitudinal increase in surface albedo, net radiative flux and radiation efficiency declined with elevation at an annual mean of 1.15 Wm⁻²/100 m and 0.008/100 m respectively. Absorbed shortwave radiation and effective terrestrial radiation showed mean decline of 1.54 Wm⁻²/100 m and 0.34 Wm⁻²/100 m, respectively, with the mean sky-to-earth radiation deficit amounting to about 52 Wm⁻² for the lowland site and 73 Wm⁻² for the highest elevated site. Some empirical models which express shortwave and longwave radiative fluxes in terms of meteorological variables have been validated for the lowland and mountain sites. Monthly mean daily total estimates of solar radiation obtained from ?ngst?m-Prescott relation were quite consistent with observed values. Parameterisation of downward atmospheric radiation under all sky condition was achieved by extending Brutsaert clear sky atmospheric model. Relationship between outgoing longwave radiation and screen temperature at the study sites was best described by an exponential function unlike the linear relationship proposed by Monteith and Unsworth. Net radiative flux for the lowland and mountain sites has been expressed in terms of absorbed shortwave radiation, cloud amount and screen temperature. Received March 5, 2001 Revised October 29, 2001     

An assessment of the potential impact of a downward shift of tropospheric water vapor on climate sensitivity

This work uses an energy balance climate model (EBCM) with explicit infrared radiative transfer, parametrized tropospheric temperature and humidity profiles, and separate stratosphere, troposphere, and surface energy balances, to investigate claims that a downward redistribution of tropospheric water vapor in response to surface warming could serve as a strong negative feedback on climatic change. A series of sensitivity tests is carried out using: (1) a variety of relationships between total precipitable water in the troposphere and temperature; (2) feedbacks between surface temperature and the vertical distribution of tropospheric water vapor at low latitudes; and (3) feedback between surface temperature or meridional temperature gradient and lapse rate. Fixed relative humidity (RH) enhances the global mean surface temperature response to a CO₂ doubling by only 50% compared to fixed absolute humidity, giving a response of 1.8 K. When water vapor is assumed to be redistributed downward between 30°S–30°N such that a 1 K surface warming reduces total precipitable water above 600 hPa by 10%, the global mean surface air temperature response is reduced to 1.2 K. Assuming a stronger downward redistribution in relation to surface temperature change has a rapidly diminishing marginal effect on global mean and tropical surface temperature response, while slightly increasing the warming at high latitudes due to the parametrized dependence of middle-to-high latitude lapse rate on the meridional temperature gradient. A modest downward water vapor redistribution, such that absolute humidity in the upper troposphere at subtropical latitudes is constant as total precipitable water increases, can reduce the tropical temperature sensitivity to less than 1 K, while increasing the equator-to-pole amplification of the surface air temperature response from a factor of about three to a factor of four. However, it is concluded that whatever changes in future GCM response might occur as a result of new parametrizations of subgrid-scale processes, they are exceedingly unlikely to produce a climate sensitivity to a CO₂ doubling of less than 1 K even if there is a strong downward shift in the water vapor distribution as climate warms. Received: 23 February 1998 / Accepted: 1 November 1999     

Clear-sky aerosol radiative forcing effects based on multi-site AERONET observations over Europe

Summary One of the great unknowns in climate research is the contribution of aerosols to climate forcing and climate perturbation. In this study, retrievals from AERONET are used to estimate the direct clear-sky aerosol top-of-atmosphere and surface radiative forcing effects for 12 multi-site observing stations in Europe. The radiative transfer code sdisort in the libRadtran environment is applied to accomplish these estimations. Most of the calculations in this study rely on observations which have been made for the years 1999, 2000, and 2001. Some stations do have observations dating back to the year of 1995. The calculations rely on a pre-compiled aerosol optical properties database for Europe. Aerosol radiative forcing effects are calculated with monthly mean aerosol optical properties retrievals and calculations are presented for three different surface albedo scenarios. Two of the surface albedo scenarios are generic by nature bare soil and green vegetation and the third relies on the ISCCP (International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project) data product. The ISCCP database has also been used to obtain clear-sky weighting fractions over AERONET stations. The AERONET stations cover the area 0° to 30° E and 42° to 52° N. AERONET retrievals are column integrated and this study does not make any seperation between the contribution of natural and anthropogenic components. For the 12 AERONET stations, median clear-sky top-of-atmosphere aerosol radiative forcing effect values for different surface albedo scenarios are calculated to be in the range of −4 to −2 W/m². High median radiative forcing effect values of about −6 W/m² were found to occur mainly in the summer months while lower values of about −1 W/m² occur in the winter months. The aerosol surface forcing also increases in summer months and can reach values of −8 W/m². Individual stations often have much higher values by a factor of 2. The median top-of-atmosphere aerosol radiative forcing effect efficiency is estimated to be about −25 W/m² and their respective surface efficiency is around −35 W/m². The fractional absorption coefficient is estimated to be 1.7, but deviates significantly from station to station. In addition, it is found that the well known peak of the aerosol radiative forcing effect at a solar zenith angle of about 75° is in fact the average of the peaks occurring at shorter and longer wavelengths. According to estimations for Central Europe, based on mean aerosol optical properties retrievals from 12 stations, the critical threshold of the aerosol single scattering albedo, between cooling and heating in the presence of an aerosol layer, is close between 0.6 and 0.76.     

中国柯本气候分类

利用中国734个气象站点1957-2016年的气温和降水量数据,结合柯本气候分类,采用薄板样条插值法,研究中国柯本气候分类的时空分布及变化特征。结果表明：1957-2016年中国包括5个气候带,其中赤道气候带（0.17%）包括热带季风和热带疏林草原气候,干旱气候带（41.38%）包括冷性沙漠和冷性草原气候,暖温气候带（25.53%）包括热夏冬干暖温、温夏冬干暖温、热夏常湿暖温以及温夏常湿暖温气候类型,冷温气候带（28.44%）包括热夏冬干冷温、温夏冬干冷温、冷夏冬干冷温、热夏常湿冷温、温夏常湿冷温以及冷夏常湿冷温气候类型,极地气候带（4.48%）仅有苔原气候。在此60 a,气候变化主要体现在冷温气候带向干燥气候带和暖温气候带的转移,以及冷温气候带中冷夏向温夏的转移和温夏向热夏的转移。     

近50a中国降水格点数据集的建立及质量评估

基于2012年6月更新的高质量2 400个台站降水资料,采用薄盘样条法,制定了采用3个自变量(经度、纬度、海拔高度)、降水量开平方预处理、3次样条的插值方案,并引入数字高程资料,以减弱中国独特地形条件下高程对降水空间插值精度的影响,并对1961—2010年中国区域地面降水站点资料进行了空间内插,得到了中国地面降水0.5°×0.5°格点数据集。经数据集的质量评估结果表明:分析值与站点观测值均方根误差平均为0.49 mm,相关系数平均达0.93(通过0.01的显著性检验),夏季插值误差高于冬季,东南地区误差普遍高于其他地区。冬、春、夏、秋季绝大多数台站绝对误差在±10 mm/月以内。冬、春、夏、秋季分别有60%、82%、54%、77%的台站相对误差在±10%之间。插值后的格点化降水资料能够比较细致、准确地描述中国大陆年平均降水场的东南多、西北少的主要空间特征,但也平滑掉了范围很小的降水极值中心。台站分布越密集的地方,插值效果越好,并且最近距离小于40 km的台站插值精度较高,大于40 km插值精度衰减较快。     

Further experiments on cyclone track prediction with a quasi-Lagrangian limited area model

Summary Results of an earlier study of cyclone track prediction using a quasi-Lagrangian model (QLM) to generate track forecasts of up to 36 hours were reported by Prasad and Rama Rao (2003). Further experiments to produce track forecasts of up to 72 hours with an updated version of the same model have been carried out in the present study. In this case, the ability of the model to predict recent historical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea has been assessed. Analysis of some of the structural features of analyzed and predicted fields has been carried out. Such fields include wind distribution and vertical motion around the cyclone centre. In addition, the merging of an idealized vortex with the large scale initial fields provided by a global model, has been carried out for a particular case study of a May 1997 storm, which hit the Bangladesh coast. This current study has demonstrated that the model generates a realistic structure of a tropical cyclone with an idealized vortex. Performance evaluation has been carried out by computing the direct position errors (DPE). The results of which show that the mean error for a 24 h forecast is about 122 km, which increases to about 256 km for a 48 h forecast and 286 km for a 72 h forecast. These figures are comparable to similar errors in respect of tropical cyclone forecasts produced by an advanced NWP centre, viz., the UKMO global model during the corresponding period, 1997–2000 (obtained from UKMO web site). The average forecast errors of the UKMO model are 160 km for 24 h, 265 km for 48 h, 415 km for 72 h forecast ranges.     

浙江省高分辨率气温空间分布图的计算与绘制

以浙江省及周边74个气象站1961—2000年常规气温观测资料为基础,利用月平均气温物理经验统计模型,完成了浙江省100m×100m分辨率月平均气温、月平均最高气温、月平均最低气温空间分布的制图,分析了拟合气温的局地分布规律,并从多个角度对拟合结果进行了验证。结果表明,月平均气温的绝对误差平均值为0.09～0.59℃,平均最高气温误差为0.09～0.80℃,平均最低气温误差为0.10～0.58℃。拟合结果较好地反映了浙江山地月气温的宏观分布趋势和局地分布特征,为浙江山地气候资源的合理开发与利用提供了科学依据。     

RETRIEVAL OF QINGHAI-XIZANG SASWR WITH ERBE AND ISCCP DATA

In the context of 1985—1988 ERBE and 1984—1988 ISCCP planetary scale albedoes and totalcloudiness in combination with Qinghai-Xizang actinometric measurements,investigation wasperformed of the climatic retrieval of surface absorbed shortwave radiation(SASWR)in theresearch highland.Evidence suggests that the method has given higher fitting accuracy with meanerror of 9.8 W m~(-2),whereupon was calculated the monthly mean SASWR flux density at thegridpoints of 2.5°×2.5°resolution over 25—40°N,75—95°E and 63 stations alongside a set of thedistribution maps prepared for its basic features.     

Solar Radiation Climatology of Alaska

Summary There are only six locations in Alaska for which global radiation data of more than a year in duration are available. This is an extremely sparse coverage for a state which covers 1.5×10&⁶ km² and stretches over at least three climatic zones. Cloud observations are, however, available from 18 stations. We used fractional cloud cover and cloud type data to model the global radiation and thus obtain a more complete radiation coverage for Alaska. This extended data set allowed an analysis of geographic and seasonal trends. A simple 1-layer model based on Haurwitz’s semi-empirical approach, allowing for changes in cloud type and fractional coverage, was developed. The model predicts the annual global radiation fluxes to within 2–11% of the observed values. Estimated monthly mean values gave an average accuracy within about 6% of the measurements. The estimates agree well with the observations during the first four months of the year but less so for the last four. Changing surface albedo might explain this deviation. Previously, the 1993 National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB) from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) modeled global radiation data for 16 Alaskan stations. Although more complete and complex, the NREL model requires a larger number of input parameters, which are not available for Alaska. Hence, we believe that our model, which is based on cloud-radiation relationship and is specifically tuned to Alaskan conditions, produces better results for this region. Annual global solar radiation flux measurements are compared with results from global coverage models based on the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) data. Contour plots of seasonal and mean annual spatial distribution of global radiation for Alaska are presented and discussed in the context of their climatic and geographic settings. Received July 16, 1997 Revised May 18,1998     

Dependence of global radiation on cloudiness and surface albedo in Tartu, Estonia

Summary ?The dependence of global and diffuse radiation on surface albedo due to multiple reflection of radiation between the surface and the atmosphere (base of clouds) is found on the basis of data obtained at the Tartu–T?ravere Actinometric Station over the period 1955–2000. It is found that the monthly totals of global radiation increase by up to 1.38–1.88 times, particularly in the winter half-year between November and March, when snow cover albedo may be high. A semi-empirical formula is derived for calculating with sufficient accuracy the monthly totals of global radiation, considering the amount of cloudiness and the surface albedo. In the time series of the monthly total by global radiation a downward trend occurs in winter months. A decrease in global radiation by up to 20% in the past 46 years can be explained primarily by a relatively high negative trend in the snow cover duration and surface albedo (up to − 0.24). As a result, days are growing darker, a new phenomenon associated with climate change, which undoubtedly affects human mood to some extent. Received November 8, 2001; revised January 24, 2002; accepted February 2, 2002     

Solar irradiance, sunshine duration and daylight illuminance derived from METEOSAT data for some European sites

Summary Radiometric ground truth data from seven Norwegian stations (58–64° N), and from five other European stations (38–61° N), are compared to satellite-derived data in the present paper. Hourly global irradiance at ground level is estimated by the Heliosat procedure from the “visible” channel of the geostationary satellite METEOSAT. With increasing latitude this satelllite sees the earth’s surface at an increasingly unfavourable angle. Nevertheless, in this paper, global irradiance estimates reproduce high latitude ground truth data with negligible Mean Bias Deviations (MBD) and only minor deviations regarding frequency distributions. Moreover, the Root Mean Square Deviations (RMSD) are comparable to those typically seen between ground truth stations some 20–30 km apart. Using a number of auxiliary models, a multiplicity of ground level solar radiation data is obtained from satellite-derived global irradiance data, and made available at the SATEL-LIGHT www server. The accuracy of the half-hourly data thus derived from Heliosat global irradiances, using models for diffuse fraction, luminous efficacy and slope/horizontal ratios, is successfully verified against ground truth data. Received August 31, 2000/Revised January 31, 2001