Trends in daily solar radiation and precipitation coefficients of variation since 1984
Trends in daily solar radiation and precipitation coefficients of variation since 1984
This study investigates the possibility of changes in daily scale solar radiation and precipitation variability. Coefficients of variation (CVs) were computed for the daily downward surface solar radiation product from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project and the daily precipitation product from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project. Regression analysis was used to identify trends in CVs. Statistically significant changes in solar radiation variability were found for 35% of the globe, and particularly large increases were found for tropical Africa and the Maritime Continent. These increases in solar radiation variability were correlated with increases in precipitation variability and increases in deep convective cloud amount. The changes in high-frequency climate variability identified here have consequences for any process depending nonlinearly on climate, including solar energy production and terrestrial ecosystem photosynthesis. To assess these consequences, additional work is needed to understand how high-frequency climate variability will change in the coming decades.
trends, precipitation, statistical techniques, radiative transfer, climate variability, convective clouds
1330-1339
Medvigy, David
9059193e-83e8-4727-9e57-eebe0ed4bfd8
Beaulieu, Claudie
13ae2c11-ebfe-48d9-bda9-122cd013c021
February 2012
Medvigy, David
9059193e-83e8-4727-9e57-eebe0ed4bfd8
Beaulieu, Claudie
13ae2c11-ebfe-48d9-bda9-122cd013c021
Medvigy, David and Beaulieu, Claudie
(2012)
Trends in daily solar radiation and precipitation coefficients of variation since 1984.
Journal of Climate, 25 (4), .
(doi:10.1175/2011JCLI4115.1).
Abstract
This study investigates the possibility of changes in daily scale solar radiation and precipitation variability. Coefficients of variation (CVs) were computed for the daily downward surface solar radiation product from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project and the daily precipitation product from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project. Regression analysis was used to identify trends in CVs. Statistically significant changes in solar radiation variability were found for 35% of the globe, and particularly large increases were found for tropical Africa and the Maritime Continent. These increases in solar radiation variability were correlated with increases in precipitation variability and increases in deep convective cloud amount. The changes in high-frequency climate variability identified here have consequences for any process depending nonlinearly on climate, including solar energy production and terrestrial ecosystem photosynthesis. To assess these consequences, additional work is needed to understand how high-frequency climate variability will change in the coming decades.
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Published date: February 2012
Keywords:
trends, precipitation, statistical techniques, radiative transfer, climate variability, convective clouds
Organisations:
Ocean and Earth Science
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 352254
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/352254
ISSN: 0894-8755
PURE UUID: 377359f8-4afd-4b80-82b8-5ebe944edea7
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Date deposited: 08 May 2013 10:12
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 13:49
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Author:
David Medvigy
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