EGU21-5264
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-5264
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Potential Driving Factors on Surface Solar Radiation Trends over China in Recent Years

Qiuyan Wang1,2,3, Hua Zhang2, and Martin Wild3
Qiuyan Wang et al.
  • 1School of Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, China (wqy_ncc@163.com)
  • 2State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, China (huazhang@cma.gov.cn)
  • 3Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland ( martin.wild@env.ethz.ch)

The annual mean surface solar radiation (SSR) trends under all-sky, clear-sky, all-sky-no-aerosol, and clear-sky-no-aerosol conditions as well as their possible causes are analyzed during 2005-2018 over China based on different satellite-retrieved datasets to determine the likely drivers of the trends. The results confirm clouds and aerosols as the major contributors to such all-sky SSR trends over China but playing different roles over sub-regions. Aerosol variations during this period result in a widespread brightening, while cloud effects show opposite trends from south to north. Moreover, aerosols contribute more to the increasing all-sky SSR trends over northern China, while clouds dominate the SSR declines over southern China. A radiative transfer model is used to explore the relative contributions of cloud cover from different cloud types to the all-types-of-cloud-cover-induced (ACC-induced) SSR trends during this period in four typical sub-regions over China. The simulations point out that the decreases in low-cloud-cover (LCC) over the North China Plain are the largest positive contributor of all cloud types to the marked annual and seasonal ACC-induced SSR increases, and the positive contributions from both high-cloud-cover (HCC) and LCC declines in summer and winter greatly contribute to the ACC-induced SSR increases over East China. The contributions from medium-low-cloud-cover (mid-LCC) and LCC variations dominate the ACC-caused SSR trends over southwestern and South China all year round, except for the larger HCC contribution in summer.

How to cite: Wang, Q., Zhang, H., and Wild, M.: Potential Driving Factors on Surface Solar Radiation Trends over China in Recent Years, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-5264, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-5264, 2021.

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