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Analysis of photosynthetically active radiation under various sky conditions in Wuhan, Central China

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Abstract

Observations of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and global solar radiation (G) at Wuhan, Central China during 2005–2012 were first reported to investigate PAR variability at different time scales and its PAR fraction (F p) under different sky conditions. Both G irradiances (I g) and PAR irradiances (I p) showed similar seasonal features that peaked in values at noon during summer and reached their lower values in winter. F p reached higher values during either sunrise or sunset; lower values of F p appeared at local noon because of the absorption effects of water vapor and clouds on long-wave radiation. There was an inverse relationship between clearness index (K t) and F p; the maximum I p decreased by 22.3 % (39.7 %) when sky conditions changed from overcast to cloudless in summer (winter); solar radiation was more affected by cloudiness than the seasonal variation in cloudy skies when compared with that in clear skies. The maximum daily PAR irradiation (R p) was 11.89 MJ m−2 day−1 with an annual average of 4.85 MJ m−2 day−1. F p was in the range of 29–61.5 % with annual daily average value being about 42 %. Meanwhile, hourly, daily, and monthly relationships between R p and G irradiation (R g) under different sky conditions were investigated. It was discovered that cloudy skies were the dominated sky condition in this region. Finally, a clear-sky PAR model was developed by analyzing the dependence of PAR irradiances on optical air mass under various sky conditions for the whole study period in Central China, which will lay foundations for ecological process study in the near future.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by National Basic Research Program (grant no. 2011CB707106) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Program: no. 41127901). We would like to thank the Chinese Ecosystem Research Network for providing the radiation observation data. We also express our sincere gratitude to the reviewers and all members of Lidar Group in Wuhan University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Map** and Remote Sensing (LIESMARS), Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430079, China

    Lunche Wang & Wei Gong

  2. International Research Center of Satellite Remote Sensing and Atmospheric Monitoring, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430079, China

    Lunche Wang & Wei Gong

  3. School of Resource and Environmental Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430079, China

    Aiwen Lin

  4. State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry (LAPC), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100029, China

    Bo Hu

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  1. Lunche Wang
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  2. Wei Gong
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  3. Aiwen Lin
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  4. Bo Hu
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Correspondence to Lunche Wang or Wei Gong.

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Wang, L., Gong, W., Lin, A. et al. Analysis of photosynthetically active radiation under various sky conditions in Wuhan, Central China. Int J Biometeorol 58, 1711–1720 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-013-0775-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-013-0775-3

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