A Satellite-Based Sunshine Duration Climate Data Record for Europe and Africa
Besides 2 m - temperature and precipitation, sunshine duration is one of the most important and commonly used parameter in climatology, with measured time series of partly more than 100 years in length. EUMETSAT’s Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF) presents a climate data...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2017-05-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/9/5/429 |
| _version_ | 1819002901073231872 |
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| author | Steffen Kothe Uwe Pfeifroth Roswitha Cremer Jörg Trentmann Rainer Hollmann |
| author_facet | Steffen Kothe Uwe Pfeifroth Roswitha Cremer Jörg Trentmann Rainer Hollmann |
| author_sort | Steffen Kothe |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Besides 2 m - temperature and precipitation, sunshine duration is one of the most important and commonly used parameter in climatology, with measured time series of partly more than 100 years in length. EUMETSAT’s Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF) presents a climate data record for daily and monthly sunshine duration (SDU) for Europe and Africa. Basis for the advanced retrieval is a highly resolved satellite product of the direct solar radiation from measurements by Meteosat satellites 2 to 10. The data record covers the time period 1983 to 2015 with a spatial resolution of 0.05° × 0.05°. The comparison against ground-based data shows high agreement but also some regional differences. Sunshine duration is overestimated by the satellite-based data in many regions, compared to surface data. In West and Central Africa, low clouds seem to be the reason for a stronger overestimation of sunshine duration in this region (up to 20% for monthly sums). For most stations, the overestimation is low, with a bias below 7.5 h for monthly sums and below 0.4 h for daily sums. A high correlation of 0.91 for daily SDU and 0.96 for monthly SDU also proved the high agreement with station data. As SDU is based on a stable and homogeneous climate data record of more than 30 years length, it is highly suitable for climate applications, such as trend estimates. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T23:12:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6825881791d54da1be87e4a48b1d3f53 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T23:12:28Z |
| publishDate | 2017-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-6825881791d54da1be87e4a48b1d3f532022-12-21T19:23:42ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922017-05-019542910.3390/rs9050429rs9050429A Satellite-Based Sunshine Duration Climate Data Record for Europe and AfricaSteffen Kothe0Uwe Pfeifroth1Roswitha Cremer2Jörg Trentmann3Rainer Hollmann4Deutscher Wetterdienst, 63067 Offenbach, GermanyDeutscher Wetterdienst, 63067 Offenbach, GermanyDeutscher Wetterdienst, 63067 Offenbach, GermanyDeutscher Wetterdienst, 63067 Offenbach, GermanyDeutscher Wetterdienst, 63067 Offenbach, GermanyBesides 2 m - temperature and precipitation, sunshine duration is one of the most important and commonly used parameter in climatology, with measured time series of partly more than 100 years in length. EUMETSAT’s Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF) presents a climate data record for daily and monthly sunshine duration (SDU) for Europe and Africa. Basis for the advanced retrieval is a highly resolved satellite product of the direct solar radiation from measurements by Meteosat satellites 2 to 10. The data record covers the time period 1983 to 2015 with a spatial resolution of 0.05° × 0.05°. The comparison against ground-based data shows high agreement but also some regional differences. Sunshine duration is overestimated by the satellite-based data in many regions, compared to surface data. In West and Central Africa, low clouds seem to be the reason for a stronger overestimation of sunshine duration in this region (up to 20% for monthly sums). For most stations, the overestimation is low, with a bias below 7.5 h for monthly sums and below 0.4 h for daily sums. A high correlation of 0.91 for daily SDU and 0.96 for monthly SDU also proved the high agreement with station data. As SDU is based on a stable and homogeneous climate data record of more than 30 years length, it is highly suitable for climate applications, such as trend estimates.http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/9/5/429sunshine durationsatellite-basedclimate monitoringMeteosat |
| spellingShingle | Steffen Kothe Uwe Pfeifroth Roswitha Cremer Jörg Trentmann Rainer Hollmann A Satellite-Based Sunshine Duration Climate Data Record for Europe and Africa Remote Sensing sunshine duration satellite-based climate monitoring Meteosat |
| title | A Satellite-Based Sunshine Duration Climate Data Record for Europe and Africa |
| title_full | A Satellite-Based Sunshine Duration Climate Data Record for Europe and Africa |
| title_fullStr | A Satellite-Based Sunshine Duration Climate Data Record for Europe and Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Satellite-Based Sunshine Duration Climate Data Record for Europe and Africa |
| title_short | A Satellite-Based Sunshine Duration Climate Data Record for Europe and Africa |
| title_sort | satellite based sunshine duration climate data record for europe and africa |
| topic | sunshine duration satellite-based climate monitoring Meteosat |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/9/5/429 |
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