Abstract
An empirical model to predict hourly global solar irradiance under all-sky conditions as a function of absorbing and scattering factors has been applied at the Dome C station in the Antarctic, using measured solar radiation and meteorological variables. The calculated hourly global solar irradiance agrees well with measurements at the ground in 2008–2011 (the model development period) and at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). This model is applied to compute global solar irradiance at the ground and its extinction in the atmosphere caused by absorbing and scattering substances during the 2006–2016 period. A sensitivity study shows that the responses of global solar irradiance to changes in water vapor and scattering factors (expressed by water vapor pressure and S/G, respectively; S and G are diffuse and global solar irradiance, respectively) are nonlinear and negative, and that global solar irradiance is more sensitive to changes in scattering than to changes in water vapor. Applying this empirical model, the albedos at the TOA and the surface in 2006–2016 are estimated and found to agree with the satellite-based retrievals. During 2006–2016, the annual mean observed and estimated global solar exposures decreased by 0.05% and 0.09%, respectively, and the diffuse exposure increased by 0.68% per year, associated with the yearly increase of the S/G ratio by 0.57% and the water vapor pressure by 1.46%. The annual mean air temperature increased by about 1.80 °C over the ten years, and agrees with the warming trends for all of Antarctica. The annual averages were 316.49 Wm−2 for the calculated global solar radiation, 0.332 for S/G, −46.23 °C for the air temperature and 0.10 hPa for the water vapor pressure. The annual mean losses of solar exposure due to absorbing and scattering substances and the total loss were 4.02, 0.19 and 4.21 MJ m−2, respectively. The annual mean absorbing loss was much larger than the scattering loss; their contributions to the total loss were 95.49% and 4.51%, respectively, indicating that absorbing substances are dominant and play essential roles. The annual absorbing, scattering and total losses increased by 0.01%, 0.39% and 0.28% per year, respectively. The estimated and satellite-retrieved annual albedos increased at the surface. The mechanisms of air-temperature change at two pole sites, as well as a mid-latitude site, are discussed.
Highlights
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports mean global warming as 0.6 ± 0.2 ◦ C during the 20th century, and anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gasesInt
GLA increased by 0.01% per year, associated with an increase in E of 1.46%; GL and E; between scattering loss (GLS) increased by 0.39% per year, associated with an increase in scattering factor (S/G) of 0.57%; and annual GL increased by 0.28% per year
According to good estimations of G and albedos at the TOAsur, the empirical model is capable of studying G and related issues, e.g., the interaction of solar radiation—GLPs at Dome C
Summary
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports mean global warming as 0.6 ± 0.2 ◦ C during the 20th century, and anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 3084 are the likely cause of this temperature rise over the last 50 years [1]. The annual mean temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula have risen rapidly since recordkeeping began in the 1950s [1–3]. The total increase in the annual mean air temperature of 2.8 ◦ C makes it the most rapidly warming region in the southern hemisphere, comparable to rapidly warming regions of the Arctic [4]. For the 19 stations in the Antarctic Peninsula over 1951–2000, 11 had warming trends and 7 had cooling trends in their annual surface temperature [2]. We still lack a sound basis for predicting climate change in this region [1]
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