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The cause of solar dimming and brightening at the Earth's surface during the last half century: Evidence from measurements of sunshine duration
Author(s) -
Stanhill Gerald,
Achiman Ori,
Rosa Rafael,
Cohen Shabtai
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1002/2013jd021308
Subject(s) - cloud cover , sunshine duration , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , climatology , angstrom , meteorology , geography , relative humidity , cloud computing , geology , chemistry , computer science , crystallography , operating system
Analysis of the Angstrom‐Prescott relationship between normalized values of global radiation and sunshine duration measured during the last 50 years made at five sites with a wide range of climate and aerosol emissions showed few significant differences in atmospheric transmissivity under clear or cloud‐covered skies between years when global dimming occurred and years when global brightening was measured, nor in most cases were there any significant changes in the parameters or in their relationships to annual rates of fossil fuel combustion in the surrounding 1° cells. It is concluded that at the sites studied changes in cloud cover rather than anthropogenic aerosols emissions played the major role in determining solar dimming and brightening during the last half century and that there are reasons to suppose that these findings may have wider relevance.