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Title: DSCOVR/EPIC-derived global hourly and daily downward shortwave and photosynthetically active radiation data at 0.1° × 0.1° resolution

Journal Article · · Earth System Science Data (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [3]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), College Park, MD (United States). Joint Global Change Research Inst.; Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). State Key Lab. of Remote Sensing Science, Aerospace Information Research Inst.
  2. Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD (United States)
  3. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), College Park, MD (United States). Joint Global Change Research Inst.
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  5. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). State Key Lab. of Remote Sensing Science, Aerospace Information Research Inst.

Downward shortwave radiation (SW) and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) play crucial roles in Earth system dynamics. Spaceborne remote sensing techniques provide a unique means for mapping accurate spatio-temporally-continuous SW/PAR, globally. However, any individual polar-orbiting or geostationary satellite cannot satisfy the desired high temporal resolution (sub-daily) and global coverage simultaneously, while integrating and fusing multi-source data from complementary satellites/sensors is challenging because of co-registration, inter-calibration, near real-time data delivery and the effects of discrepancies in orbital geometry. The Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) onboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), launched in February 2015, offers an unprecedented possibility to bridge the gap between high temporal resolution and global coverage, and characterize the diurnal cycles of SW/PAR globally. In this study, we adopted a suite of well-validated data-driven machine-learning models to generate the first global land products of SW/PAR, from June 2015 to June 2019, based on DSCOVR/EPIC data. The derived products have high temporal resolution (hourly) and medium spatial resolution (0.1° × 0.1°), and include estimates of the direct and diffuse components of SW/PAR. We used independently widely-distributed ground station data from the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN), the Surface Radiation Budget Network (SURFRAD), NOAA's Global Monitoring Division and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program to evaluate the performance of our products, and further analyzed and compared the spatio-temporal characteristics of the derived products with the benchmarking Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System Synoptic (CERES) data. We found both the hourly and daily products to be consistent with ground-based observations (e.g., hourly and daily total SWs have low biases of -3.96 and -0.71?W/m2 and root mean square errors (RMSEs) of 103.50 and 35.40?W/m2, respectively). The developed products capture the complex spatio-temporal patterns well and accurately track substantial diurnal, monthly, and seasonal variations of SW/PAR when compared to CERES data. They provide a reliable and valuable alternative for solar photovoltaic applications worldwide and can be used to improve our understanding of the diurnal and seasonal variabilities of the terrestrial water, carbon and energy fluxes at various spatial scales. The products are freely available at https://doi.org/10.25584/1595069

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Center; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Contributing Organization:
PNNL, BNL, ANL, ORNL
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1671740
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1699981
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-156293
Journal Information:
Earth System Science Data (Online), Vol. 12, Issue 3; ISSN 1866-3516
Publisher:
CopernicusCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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