Monitoring and evaluation of solar irradiance at Mendel Station, northern Antarctic Peninsula
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| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | In this contribution, long-term solar radiation data sets recorded at the Czech Johann Gregor Mendel Station situated on the northern tip of James Ross Island are presented. James Ross Island is a relatively large island located off the eastern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Clouds and other atmospheric constituents are modified by an orographic barrier of the Antarctic Peninsula, which leads to significant differences between western and eastern coast. For the purpose of this study, short-wave incident radiation and erythemally weighted radiation were analyzed from October 2007 to January 2011. The measured erythemally weighted radiation represents a solar irradiance weighted by the erythemal action spectrum according to McKinlay and Diffey (1987). The total ozone content was obtained from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument operational retrievals for the geographical coordinates of Mendel Station. The statistical analysis and nonlinear regression model supported the fundamental influence of the cloudiness and ozone on the variation of short-wave and erythemally weighted irradiances. The analysis confirmed that, due to changes in solar elevation angle and total ozone content, the highest short-wave irradiances occured in December and January, while erythemally weighted irradiances could be found in the second half of November. |
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