Title
Evaluation of the Total, Direct, and Diffuse Solar Radiations From the ERA5 Reanalysis Data in China
Abstract
Surface solar radiation is essential for regional climate and environmental research. The widely used European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ERA5 reanalysis products provide long-term spatial estimates of the total and direct solar radiation on an hourly scale; however, its accuracy has not been systematically evaluated for China. In this letter, <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">in situ</italic> measurements from 98 sites are used to analyze the deviations in the hourly radiation from ERA5 and to compare the daily variations. The results reveal that estimates from the reanalysis correlate well with ground observations and completely reflect the regional characteristics and daily variations at individual sites. Overall, ERA5 overestimates the hourly total solar radiation and direct radiation by approximately 30.87 and 73.95 W/m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , respectively, whereas it underestimates the diffuse radiation by approximately 43.08 W/m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . Spatiotemporal differences are found by comparing the errors and time series of different sites. The fact that the accuracy in areas with rainy and cloudy weather is obviously lower indicates that the ERA5 analysis poorly performs when retrieving cloud properties. These conclusions can contribute to guiding the rational use of ERA5 radiation products.
Year
DOI
Venue
2020
10.1109/LGRS.2019.2916410
IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters
Keywords
Field
DocType
Solar radiation,Meteorology,Atmospheric measurements,Atmospheric modeling,Sea measurements,Numerical models,Biological system modeling
Remote sensing,China,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
17
1
1545-598X
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
0
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Hou Jiang181.84
Yaping Yang2175.99
Yongqing Bai301.01
Hongzhi Wang400.34