Satellite-based sunshine duration for Europe

  • In this study, two different methods were applied to derive daily and monthly sunshine duration based on high-resolution satellite products provided by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring using data from Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager). The satellite products were either hourly cloud type or hourly surface incoming direct radiation. The satellite sunshine duration estimates were not found to be significantly different using the native 15-minute temporal resolution of SEVIRI. The satellite-based sunshine duration products give additional spatial information over the European continent compared with equivalent in situ-based products. An evaluation of the satellite sunshine duration by product intercomparison and against station measurements was carried out to determine their accuracy. The satellite data were found to be within ±1 h/day compared to high-quality Baseline Surface Radiation Network or surface synoptic observations (SYNOP) station measurements. The satellite-based products differ more over the oceans than over land, mainly because of the treatment of fractional clouds in the cloud type-based sunshine duration product. This paper presents the methods used to derive the satellite sunshine duration products and the performance of the different retrievals. The main benefits and disadvantages compared to station-based products are also discussed.

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Author:Steffen KotheORCiDGND, Elizabeth Good, André Obregón, Bodo AhrensORCiDGND, Helga Nitsche
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-300978
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/rs5062943
ISSN:2072-4292
Parent Title (English):Remote sensing
Publisher:Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
Place of publication:Basel
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2013/08/29
Date of first Publication:2013/06/07
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2013/08/29
Tag:CM SAF; Meteosat Second Generation; climate monitoring; cloud type; evaluation; sunshine duration; surface incoming direct radiation
Volume:5
Issue:6
Page Number:30
First Page:2943
Last Page:2972
Note:
Updated Version, uploaded 17 June 2013
Note:
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
HeBIS-PPN:35202917X
Institutes:Geowissenschaften / Geographie / Geowissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 55 Geowissenschaften, Geologie / 550 Geowissenschaften
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 3.0