Long-term trends in downwelling solar irradiance and associated climatic factors over China are studied in the paper. Decreasing trends in global and direct radiation are observed over much of China. The largest decrease occurs in South and East China (east of about 100 E and south of about 40 N). The spatial pattern of observed trends in diffuse irradiance is complex and inhomogeneous. An intr...

[1] The climatic effects of various types of aerosol in China have been investigated by using the atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) developed at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The model includes an efficient and physically based radiation parameterization scheme specifically developed for application to clouds and aerosols. Simulation results show that inclusion of...

GSRad (global solar radiation) is a software component containing models to estimate extra-terrestrial and ground-level solar radiation (global and photosynthetically active; direct, diffuse, and reflected components) from alternative methods. Radiation data are estimated as either 1-h or 24-h values. Moreover, GSRad provides methods to compute clear sky transmissivity, slope and aspect angles ...

In this study, an analysis of the monthly mean values of the fraction of the sky covered by clouds (C) of all types and the duration of bright sunshine hours (S) and global solar radiation on the horizontal surface (H) was carried out to establish relationship for solar radiation estimation for Bangladesh. The relationship between C and (1 − S/S0), where S0 is the maximum possible hours of suns...

There has been a long history of unexplained anomalous absorption of solar radiation by clouds. Collocated satellite and surface measurements of solar radiation at five geographically diverse locations showed significant solar absorption by clouds, resulting in about 25 watts per square meter more global-mean absorption by the cloudy atmosphere than predicted by theoretical models. It has often...

Solar UV radiation, climate and other drivers of global change are undergoing significant changes and models forecast that these changes will continue for the remainder of this century. Here we assess the effects of solar UV radiation on biogeochemical cycles and the interactions of these effects with climate change, including feedbacks on climate. Such interactions occur in both terrestrial an...

Energy is one of the essential requirements of livinghood. In present scenario conventional energy resources for producing energy to sustain our lives has become a necessity. Since these sources are depleting at faster rate and cost of energy is increasing simultaneously, so conversion of renewable form of energy is much desired and solar energy is a good resource. The present work is based on ...

Flat plate-type solar water distillation (FPSWD) is having importance for providing hot water and drinking water simultaneously to households in rural areas or small community/hotels. It utilizes solar radiation to heat the water, produce fresh water out of the saline or brackish water, and also produce hot water. The paper is focused on field performance of inclined FPSWD for domestic and comm...