Spatial and temporal patterns as well as major influencing factors of global and diffuse Horizontal Irradiance over China: 1960–2014

Abstract

Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) on Earth is a central element of climate systems. With changes in the climate and regional development, the patterns and influencing factors of GHI, in addition to presenting global consistency, are increasingly showing regional particularities. Based on data for GHI, Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance (DHI) and potential impact factors (geographical position, elevation, cloud cover, water vapor, and ground atmospheric transparency related variables) from 1960 to 2014 in China, we analyzed the pattern and major influencing factors of GHI and DHI. The results showed that the major influencing factors of the GHI spatial pattern were the total cloud cover (TCC) and relative humidity (RH) in China. Dividing all of China into two regions, the major factors were the water vapor pressure (WVP) in the northern region and TCC in the southern region. And we divided the GHI and DHI data into two periods (1960–1987 and 1988–2014) due to global dimming and brightening observed in China in the late 1980s. The temporal GHI showed that 31 of 58 decreased significantly with an average decreasing rate of 95 MJ 10 yr−1 during the periods of 1960–2014 and 49 of 76 stations decreased significantly with an rate of 342 MJ 10 yr−1 during 1960–1987, whereas 57 of 88 stations did not change and 24 stations increased significantly with an rate of 201 MJ 10 yr−1 during the period of 1988–2014. The temporal DHI showed that 40 of 61sites did not change significantly from 1960 to 1987. The major influencing factors for temporal changes of GHI in nine typical cities from 1960 to 2013 were as follows: air quality-related variables in super cities, sandstorms and wind in desert oasis cities, clouds in cities with good air quality, and a low cloud amount (LCA) and annual fog days (FD) in Chengdu. Overall, we identified characteristics of GHI and DHI based on global climate change and regional urban development and found that the spatial characteristics of GHI results for China are consistent with global trends, whereas the spatial characteristics of DHI and temporal characteristics of GHI and DHI have changed significantly and exhibit these measurable trends due to strong regional influences of changing cloud amounts, water vapor, and air quality.