A surface radiation climatology across two Meteosat satellite generations

Long-term observations of the surface radiation budget are essential for climate monitoring, climate model evaluation and solar energy applications. The Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF) released a climate data record (CDR) of global and direct surface irradiance as well...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote sensing of environment 2014-02, Vol.142, p.103-110
Main Authors: Posselt, R., Mueller, R., Trentmann, J., Stockli, R., Liniger, M.A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied geophysics
Biological and medical sciences
Channels
Climate
Climate data records
Climatology
Clouds
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Environmental monitoring
Exact sciences and technology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects. Techniques
Homogeneity
Internal geophysics
Satellite remote sensing
Satellites
Solar surface irradiance
Teledetection and vegetation maps
Trends
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Summary:Long-term observations of the surface radiation budget are essential for climate monitoring, climate model evaluation and solar energy applications. The Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF) released a climate data record (CDR) of global and direct surface irradiance as well as effective cloud albedo derived from observations of the Meteosat First Generation satellites (MFG, 1983–2005). This study presents an extension of this CDR using measurements from the Meteosat Second Generation satellites (MSG, 2004–present). This extended surface radiation dataset spans nearly 30years of data and, therefore, is in its uniquely high temporal and spatial resolution a valuable contribution to the climate community. In order to enable climatological consistency and homogeneity, the retrieval algorithm had to be modified for MSG: 1. The two narrowband visible channels of the MSG satellites are combined to simulate the MFG broadband visible channel; 2. The maximum cloud reflectance is empirically adjusted to account for the differences in the dynamic range of MSG compared to MFG. The extended dataset is tested for homogeneity and no significant breaks are detected during the overlap period of 2004–2005. Validation of the extended global radiation dataset against ground based observations from the Baseline Surface Radiation Network yields a mean monthly absolute bias of 8.15Wm−2. This complies with the target accuracy threshold of 15Wm−2 defined by the Global Climate Observing System. Global radiation has an overall positive, and significant, trend over the Meteosat disk which is mainly due to a negative trend in the effective cloud albedo, i.e., a decrease in cloudiness. Trends due to changes in the clear sky radiation are small and only induced by trends in the water vapor fields. Trends caused by changes in the direct effects of atmospheric aerosol are not represented because an aerosol climatology is used. •Extend the CM SAF surface radiation climatology toward the present using MSG data•Simulating the MVIRI broadband channel using the SEVIRI-VIS channels•Homogeneity is given at the change of the Meteosat generations in 2004–2005.•Positive trend in retrieved global radiation is mainly due to changes in cloudiness.
ISSN:0034-4257
1879-0704
DOI:10.1016/j.rse.2013.11.007