Mapping long-term and high-resolution global gridded photosynthetically active radiation using the ISCCP H-series cloud product and reanalysis data

Abstract

Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) is a fundamental physiological variable for research in the ecological, agricultural, and global change fields. In this study, we produced a 35-year (1984–2018) high-resolution (3 h, 10 km) global gridded PAR dataset using an effective physical-based model. The main inputs of the model were the latest International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) H-series cloud products, MERRA-2 aerosol data, ERA5 surface routine variables, and MODIS and CLARRA-2 albedo products. Our gridded PAR product was evaluated against surface observations measured at 7 experimental stations of the SURFace RADiation budget network (SURFRAD), 42 experimental stations of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), and 38 experimental stations of the Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN). Instantaneous PAR was validated against SURFRAD and NEON data; mean bias errors (MBE) and root mean square errors (RMSE) were, on average 5.8 and 44.9 W m−2, respectively, and the correlation coefficient (R) was 0.94 at the 10 km scale. When upscaled to 30 km, the errors were markedly reduced. Daily PAR was validated against SURFRAD, NEON, and CERN data, and the RMSEs were 13.2, 13.1, and 19.6 W m−2, respectively, at the 10 km scale. The RMSEs were slightly reduced when upscaled to 30 km. Compared with the well-known global satellite-based PAR product of the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), our PAR product was found to be a more accurate dataset with higher resolution. This new dataset is now available at https://doi.org/10.11888/RemoteSen.tpdc.271909 (Tang, 2021).