Understanding the trends in reflected solar radiation: a latitude- and month-based perspective

Abstract

Averaging reflected solar radiation (RSR) over the whole year/hemisphere may mask the inter-month-/region-specific signals, limiting the investigation of spatiotemporal mechanisms and hemispheric symmetry projections. This drives us to explain RSR characteristics from latitude- and month-based perspectives. The study also explores whether longer-record radiation datasets can exhibit hemispheric symmetry of RSR to understand its temporal changes. Statistics indicate that the largest trends in decreasing RSR in the Northern and Southern hemispheres (NH and SH) occur in mid-spring and are dominated by clear-sky atmospheric and cloud components and cloud components only, respectively. The interannual negative trend in the NH RSR mainly derives from 30–50° N latitude zones, attributed to the decrease in the clear-sky atmospheric component caused by reduced anthropogenic sulfate emissions and spring/summer dust frequencies and reduced cloud fraction caused by increased sea surface temperature and an unstable marine boundary layer, thus leading to a reduced cloud component. In the SH, the significant RSR decreasing trend is widespread in 0–50° S latitude zones, which is closely related to the decrease in the cloud component caused by the decrease in cloud cover over the tropical western Pacific and Southern Ocean, partially compensated by the increase in the clear-sky atmospheric component. A new data evaluation system and an uncertainty analysis reveal that only the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) outperforms in exhibiting the Cloud and Earth Radiant Energy System (CERES) hemispheric RSR differences due to offsetting biases among different components and achieves hemispheric RSR symmetry criteria within its uncertainty, making it suitable for studying long-term RSR hemispheric symmetry changes. Furthermore, the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) agrees well with CERES regarding hemispheric cloud component asymmetry and can help in the study of the corresponding long-term changes and mechanisms.