Satellite-based trends of solar radiation and cloud parameters in Europe
Satellite-based Climate Monitoring Department, Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach, Germany
Jedrzej S. Bojanowski
Remote Sensing Centre, Institute of Geodesy and Cartography, Warsaw, Poland
Nicolas Clerbaux
Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium, Remote Sensing from Space, Brussels, Belgium
Veronica Manara
Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, ISAC-CNR, Bologna, Italy
Arturo Sanchez-Lorenzo
Department of Physics, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain
Jörg Trentmann
Satellite-based Climate Monitoring Department, Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach, Germany
Jakub P. Walawender
Satellite-based Climate Monitoring Department, Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach, Germany
Rainer Hollmann
Satellite-based Climate Monitoring Department, Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach, Germany
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Uwe Pfeifroth, Jaqueline Drücke, Steffen Kothe, Jörg Trentmann, Marc Schröder, and Rainer Hollmann
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5243–5265, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5243-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5243-2024, 2024
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Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1537–1561, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1537-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1537-2022, 2022
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The great works of physics teach us that a central paradigm of science should be to make methods and theories as easy as possible and as complex as needed. This paper provides a brief review of remote sensing of solar surface irradiance based on this paradigm.
Ina Neher, Susanne Crewell, Stefanie Meilinger, Uwe Pfeifroth, and Jörg Trentmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12871–12888, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12871-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12871-2020, 2020
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Photovoltaic power is one current option to meet the rising energy demand with low environmental impact. Global horizontal irradiance (GHI) is the fuel for photovoltaic power installations and needs to be evaluated to plan and dimension power plants. In this study, 35 years of satellite-based GHI data are analyzed over West Africa to determine their impact on photovoltaic power generation. The major challenges for the development of a solar-based power system in West Africa are then outlined.
Frank Kaspar, Michael Borsche, Uwe Pfeifroth, Jörg Trentmann, Jaqueline Drücke, and Paul Becker
Adv. Sci. Res., 16, 119–128, https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-16-119-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-16-119-2019, 2019
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In this study, we assess balancing effects between photovoltaics and wind energy. On average, the seasonal cycles complement each other in Germany as well as in Europe. The frequency of events with a risk of low electricity generation is analyzed. The results illustrate that the number of such events is reduced when offshore regions are included, or when a combined system of PV and wind energy is considered. A European-wide analysis also leads to a distinct reduction of such events.
Uwe Pfeifroth, Jaqueline Drücke, Steffen Kothe, Jörg Trentmann, Marc Schröder, and Rainer Hollmann
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5243–5265, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5243-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5243-2024, 2024
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Almudena Velázquez Blázquez, Edward Baudrez, Nicolas Clerbaux, and Carlos Domenech
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4245–4256, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4245-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4245-2024, 2024
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The Broadband Radiometer measures shortwave and total-wave radiances filtered by the spectral response of the instrument. To obtain unfiltered solar and thermal radiances, the effect of the spectral response needs to be corrected for, done within the BM-RAD processor. Errors in the unfiltering are propagated into fluxes; thus, accurate unfiltering is required for their proper estimation (within BMA-FLX). Unfiltering errors are estimated to be <0.5 % for the shortwave and <0.1 % for the longwave.
Abhay Devasthale, Sandra Andersson, Erik Engström, Frank Kaspar, Jörg Trentmann, Anke Duguay-Tetzlaff, Jan Fokke Meirink, Erik Kjellström, Tomas Landelius, Manu Anna Thomas, and Karl-Göran Karlsson
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Almudena Velázquez Blázquez, Carlos Domenech, Edward Baudrez, Nicolas Clerbaux, Carla Salas Molar, and Nils Madenach
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Nikos Benas, Irina Solodovnik, Martin Stengel, Imke Hüser, Karl-Göran Karlsson, Nina Håkansson, Erik Johansson, Salomon Eliasson, Marc Schröder, Rainer Hollmann, and Jan Fokke Meirink
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 5153–5170, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5153-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5153-2023, 2023
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Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 4901–4926, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4901-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4901-2023, 2023
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Richard Müller and Uwe Pfeifroth
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1537–1561, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1537-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1537-2022, 2022
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Jędrzej S. Bojanowski and Jan P. Musiał
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6771–6788, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6771-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6771-2020, 2020
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Ina Neher, Susanne Crewell, Stefanie Meilinger, Uwe Pfeifroth, and Jörg Trentmann
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Caroline A. Poulsen, Gregory R. McGarragh, Gareth E. Thomas, Martin Stengel, Matthew W. Christensen, Adam C. Povey, Simon R. Proud, Elisa Carboni, Rainer Hollmann, and Roy G. Grainger
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2121–2135, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2121-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2121-2020, 2020
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William Wandji Nyamsi, Antti Lipponen, Arturo Sanchez-Lorenzo, Martin Wild, and Antti Arola
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3061–3079, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3061-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3061-2020, 2020
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Karsten Fennig, Marc Schröder, Axel Andersson, and Rainer Hollmann
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A Fundamental Climate Data Record (FCDR) from satellite-borne microwave radiometers has been created, covering the time period from October 1978 to December 2015. This article describes how the observations are processed, calibrated, corrected, inter-calibrated, and evaluated in order to provide a homogeneous data record of brightness temperatures across 10 different instruments aboard three different satellite platforms.
Martin Stengel, Stefan Stapelberg, Oliver Sus, Stephan Finkensieper, Benjamin Würzler, Daniel Philipp, Rainer Hollmann, Caroline Poulsen, Matthew Christensen, and Gregory McGarragh
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 41–60, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-41-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-41-2020, 2020
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Frank Kaspar, Michael Borsche, Uwe Pfeifroth, Jörg Trentmann, Jaqueline Drücke, and Paul Becker
Adv. Sci. Res., 16, 119–128, https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-16-119-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-16-119-2019, 2019
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Soheila Jafariserajehlou, Linlu Mei, Marco Vountas, Vladimir Rozanov, John P. Burrows, and Rainer Hollmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1059–1076, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1059-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1059-2019, 2019
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We developed a new algorithm for cloud identification over the Arctic. This algorithm called ASCIA, utilizes time-series measurements of Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) on Envisat and Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) on Sentinel-3A and -3B.
The data product of ASCIA is compared with three satellite products: ASCIA shows an improved performance compared to them. We validated ASCIA by ground-based measurements and a promising agreement is achieved.
Mélodie Trolliet, Jakub P. Walawender, Bernard Bourlès, Alexandre Boilley, Jörg Trentmann, Philippe Blanc, Mireille Lefèvre, and Lucien Wald
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Maite Bauwens, Trissevgeni Stavrakou, Jean-François Müller, Bert Van Schaeybroeck, Lesley De Cruz, Rozemien De Troch, Olivier Giot, Rafiq Hamdi, Piet Termonia, Quentin Laffineur, Crist Amelynck, Niels Schoon, Bernard Heinesch, Thomas Holst, Almut Arneth, Reinhart Ceulemans, Arturo Sanchez-Lorenzo, and Alex Guenther
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Gregory R. McGarragh, Caroline A. Poulsen, Gareth E. Thomas, Adam C. Povey, Oliver Sus, Stefan Stapelberg, Cornelia Schlundt, Simon Proud, Matthew W. Christensen, Martin Stengel, Rainer Hollmann, and Roy G. Grainger
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3397–3431, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3397-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3397-2018, 2018
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Oliver Sus, Martin Stengel, Stefan Stapelberg, Gregory McGarragh, Caroline Poulsen, Adam C. Povey, Cornelia Schlundt, Gareth Thomas, Matthew Christensen, Simon Proud, Matthias Jerg, Roy Grainger, and Rainer Hollmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3373–3396, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3373-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3373-2018, 2018
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This paper presents a new cloud detection and classification framework, CC4CL. It applies a sophisticated optimal estimation method to derive cloud variables from satellite data of various polar-orbiting platforms and sensors (AVHRR, MODIS, AATSR). CC4CL provides explicit uncertainty quantification and long-term consistency for decadal timeseries at various spatial resolutions. We analysed 5 case studies to show that cloud height estimates are very realistic unless optically thin clouds overlap.
Julian Liman, Marc Schröder, Karsten Fennig, Axel Andersson, and Rainer Hollmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 1793–1815, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-1793-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-1793-2018, 2018
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Latent heat fluxes (LHF) play a major role in the climate system. Over open ocean, they are increasingly observed by satellite instruments. To access their quality, this research focuses on thorough uncertainty analysis of all LHF-related variables of the HOAPS satellite climatology, in parts making use of novel analysis approaches. Results indicate climatological LHF uncertainies up to 50 W m−2, whereby underlying specific humidities tend to be more uncertain than contributing wind speeds.
Stelios Kazadzis, Dimitra Founda, Basil E. Psiloglou, Harry Kambezidis, Nickolaos Mihalopoulos, Arturo Sanchez-Lorenzo, Charikleia Meleti, Panagiotis I. Raptis, Fragiskos Pierros, and Pierre Nabat
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 2395–2411, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-2395-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-2395-2018, 2018
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The National Observatory of Athens has been collecting solar radiation, sunshine duration, and cloud and visibility data/observations since the beginning of the 20th century. In this work we present surface solar radiation data since 1953 and reconstructed data since 1900. We have attempted to show and discuss the long-term changes in solar surface radiation over Athens, Greece, using these unique datasets.
Martin Stengel, Stefan Stapelberg, Oliver Sus, Cornelia Schlundt, Caroline Poulsen, Gareth Thomas, Matthew Christensen, Cintia Carbajal Henken, Rene Preusker, Jürgen Fischer, Abhay Devasthale, Ulrika Willén, Karl-Göran Karlsson, Gregory R. McGarragh, Simon Proud, Adam C. Povey, Roy G. Grainger, Jan Fokke Meirink, Artem Feofilov, Ralf Bennartz, Jedrzej S. Bojanowski, and Rainer Hollmann
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 881–904, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-881-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-881-2017, 2017
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We present new cloud property datasets based on measurements from the passive imaging satellite sensors AVHRR, MODIS, ATSR2, AATSR and MERIS. Retrieval systems were developed that include cloud detection and cloud typing followed by optimal estimation retrievals of cloud properties (e.g. cloud-top pressure, effective radius, optical thickness, water path). Special features of all datasets are spectral consistency and rigorous uncertainty propagation from pixel-level data to monthly properties.
Martin Wild, Atsumu Ohmura, Christoph Schär, Guido Müller, Doris Folini, Matthias Schwarz, Maria Zyta Hakuba, and Arturo Sanchez-Lorenzo
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 601–613, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-601-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-601-2017, 2017
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The Global Energy Balance Archive (GEBA) is a database for the central storage of worldwide measured energy fluxes at the Earth's surface, maintained at ETH Zurich (Switzerland). This paper documents the status of the GEBA version 2017 database, presents the new web interface and user access, and reviews the scientific impact that GEBA data had in various applications. GEBA has continuously been expanded and updated and to date contains around 500 000 monthly mean entries from 2500 locations.
Christopher J. Merchant, Frank Paul, Thomas Popp, Michael Ablain, Sophie Bontemps, Pierre Defourny, Rainer Hollmann, Thomas Lavergne, Alexandra Laeng, Gerrit de Leeuw, Jonathan Mittaz, Caroline Poulsen, Adam C. Povey, Max Reuter, Shubha Sathyendranath, Stein Sandven, Viktoria F. Sofieva, and Wolfgang Wagner
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 511–527, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-511-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-511-2017, 2017
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Climate data records (CDRs) contain data describing Earth's climate and should address uncertainty in the data to communicate what is known about climate variability or change and what range of doubt exists. This paper discusses good practice for including uncertainty information in CDRs for the essential climate variables (ECVs) derived from satellite data. Recommendations emerge from the shared experience of diverse ECV projects within the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative.
Yawen Wang, Martin Wild, Arturo Sanchez-Lorenzo, and Veronica Manara
Ann. Geophys., 35, 839–851, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-35-839-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-35-839-2017, 2017
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Through the selection of 172 urban–rural station pairs, this study noted that urbanization significantly influenced the dimming trend in sunshine duration in China from 1960 until it leveled off after 1990. During 1960–1989, rural dimming was around two-thirds the rate of urban dimming; this ratio generally shows a positive correlation with urbanization level. There may be an overestimation of dimming in China when a dataset with more urban-scale sites than rural-scale sites is applied.
Nikos Benas, Stephan Finkensieper, Martin Stengel, Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, Timo Hanschmann, Rainer Hollmann, and Jan Fokke Meirink
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 415–434, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-415-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-415-2017, 2017
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This study focuses on an evaluation of CLAAS-2 (Cloud property dAtAset using SEVIRI, Edition 2), which was created based on observations from geostationary Meteosat satellites. Using a variety of reference datasets, very good overall agreement is found. This suggests the usefulness of CLAAS-2 in applications ranging from high spatial and temporal resolution cloud process studies to the evaluation of regional climate models.
Karl-Göran Karlsson, Kati Anttila, Jörg Trentmann, Martin Stengel, Jan Fokke Meirink, Abhay Devasthale, Timo Hanschmann, Steffen Kothe, Emmihenna Jääskeläinen, Joseph Sedlar, Nikos Benas, Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, Cornelia Schlundt, Diana Stein, Stefan Finkensieper, Nina Håkansson, and Rainer Hollmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 5809–5828, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5809-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5809-2017, 2017
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The paper presents the second version of a global climate data record based on satellite measurements from polar orbiting weather satellites. It describes the global evolution of cloudiness, surface albedo and surface radiation during the time period 1982–2015. The main improvements of algorithms are described together with some validation results. In addition, some early analysis is presented of some particularly interesting climate features (Arctic albedo and cloudiness + global cloudiness).
Ralf Bennartz, Heidrun Höschen, Bruno Picard, Marc Schröder, Martin Stengel, Oliver Sus, Bojan Bojkov, Stefano Casadio, Hannes Diedrich, Salomon Eliasson, Frank Fell, Jürgen Fischer, Rainer Hollmann, Rene Preusker, and Ulrika Willén
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1387–1402, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1387-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1387-2017, 2017
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The microwave radiometers (MWR) on board ERS-1, ERS-2, and Envisat provide a continuous time series of brightness temperature observations between 1991 and 2012. Here we report on a new total column water vapour (TCWV) and wet tropospheric correction (WTC) dataset that builds on this time series. The dataset is publicly available under doi:10.5676/DWD_EMIR/V001.
Veronica Manara, Michele Brunetti, Angela Celozzi, Maurizio Maugeri, Arturo Sanchez-Lorenzo, and Martin Wild
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 11145–11161, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11145-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11145-2016, 2016
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This paper presents the temporal evolution of solar radiation over Italy for the 1959–2013 period and discusses possible reasons for differences between all-sky and clear-sky conditions in order to understand which part of the solar radiation variability depends on aerosols or clouds. The results give evidence of a relevant influence of both anthropogenic and natural aerosols on solar radiation long-term variability.
Yawen Wang, Martin Wild, Arturo Sanchez-Lorenzo, Yonghui Yang, Veronica Manara, and Dandan Ren
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2016-657, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2016-657, 2016
Revised manuscript not accepted
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The strong decadal variations in surface solar radiation, known as "global dimming and brightening", are considered to be related to anthropogenic activities. Based on a comprehensive set of sunshine duration measurements in China, the present study investigates to what extent these changes occurred, only in cities or also in remote areas. The quantification of this "urbanization effect" enables a more accurate determination of the large scale variations of surface solar radiation over China.
Sergio M. Vicente-Serrano, Cesar Azorin-Molina, Arturo Sanchez-Lorenzo, Ahmed El Kenawy, Natalia Martín-Hernández, Marina Peña-Gallardo, Santiago Beguería, and Miquel Tomas-Burguera
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 3393–3410, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-3393-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-3393-2016, 2016
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In this work we analyse the recent evolution and meteorological drivers of the atmospheric evaporative demand in the Canary Islands. We found that the reference evapotranspiration increased by 18.2 mm decade−1 – on average – between 1961 and 2013, with the highest increase recorded during summer. This increase was mainly driven by changes in the aerodynamic component, caused by a statistically significant reduction of the relative humidity.
D. Chang, Y. Cheng, P. Reutter, J. Trentmann, S. M. Burrows, P. Spichtinger, S. Nordmann, M. O. Andreae, U. Pöschl, and H. Su
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 10325–10348, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10325-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10325-2015, 2015
S. T. Turnock, D. V. Spracklen, K. S. Carslaw, G. W. Mann, M. T. Woodhouse, P. M. Forster, J. Haywood, C. E. Johnson, M. Dalvi, N. Bellouin, and A. Sanchez-Lorenzo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 9477–9500, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-9477-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-9477-2015, 2015
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We evaluate HadGEM3-UKCA over Europe for the period 1960-2009 against observations of aerosol mass and number, aerosol optical depth (AOD) and surface solar radiation (SSR). The model underestimates aerosol mass and number but is less biased if compared to AOD and SSR. Observed trends in aerosols are well simulated by the model and necessary for reproducing the observed increase in SSR since 1990. European all-sky top of atmosphere aerosol radiative forcing increased by > 3 Wm-2 from 1970 to 2009.
A. Sanchez-Romero, J. A. González, J. Calbó, and A. Sanchez-Lorenzo
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 183–194, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-183-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-183-2015, 2015
P. Reutter, J. Trentmann, A. Seifert, P. Neis, H. Su, D. Chang, M. Herzog, H. Wernli, M. O. Andreae, and U. Pöschl
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 7573–7583, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-7573-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-7573-2014, 2014
M. Stengel, A. Kniffka, J. F. Meirink, M. Lockhoff, J. Tan, and R. Hollmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 4297–4311, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-4297-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-4297-2014, 2014
A. Kniffka, M. Stengel, M. Lockhoff, R. Bennartz, and R. Hollmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 887–905, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-887-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-887-2014, 2014
H. Brenot, J. Neméghaire, L. Delobbe, N. Clerbaux, P. De Meutter, A. Deckmyn, A. Delcloo, L. Frappez, and M. Van Roozendael
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 5425–5449, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5425-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5425-2013, 2013
K.-G. Karlsson, A. Riihelä, R. Müller, J. F. Meirink, J. Sedlar, M. Stengel, M. Lockhoff, J. Trentmann, F. Kaspar, R. Hollmann, and E. Wolters
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 5351–5367, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5351-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5351-2013, 2013
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Pfeifroth, U., Sanchez-Lorenzo, A., Manara, V., Trentmann, J., and Hollmann, R.: Trends and Variability of Surface Solar Radiation in Europe based on Surface- and Satellite-based Data Records, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 123, 1735–1754, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JD027418, 2018.
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Short summary
Measuring solar radiation and analysing its interaction with clouds are essential for the understanding of the climate system. Trends in EUMETSAT CM SAF satellite-based climate data records of solar radiation and clouds are analysed during 1992–2015 in Europe. More surface solar radiation and less top-of-atmosphere reflected radiation and cloud cover is found. This study indicates that one of the main reasons for the positive trend in surface solar radiation is a decrease in cloud cover.
Measuring solar radiation and analysing its interaction with clouds are essential for the...