HR: 1340h
AN: B33B-1029    [Abstracts]
TI: Means and Trends in Solar Radiation: Results From Two Global Data Sets and Effects on Estimated Net Primary Production
AU: * Hicke, J A
EM: jhicke@nrel.colostate.edu
AF: Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory Colorado State University, 1499 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523 United States
AB: Downwelling surface solar radiation is an important factor driving plant productivity, and clouds and aerosols are major factors responsible for interannual variability in downwelling radiation. Global ecosystem models require spatially extensive data sets that vary interannually to capture effects that potentially drive changes in ecosystem function. Representative global solar radiation data sets include National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalyses and Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) calculations that included satellite observations of cloud properties. The CASA light-use efficiency model, which utilizes solar radiation and satellite-derived vegetation information, was run with the two solar radiation data sets to explore how differences affect estimated net primary production (NPP). Mean global NCEP solar radiation exceeded that from GISS by 16%, likely as a result of lower cloudiness within the NCEP reanalyses compared to satellite observations. Neither data set resulted in a significant trend in growing season radiation over the study period (1984-2000). Locally, relative differences were up to 40% in the mean and 10% in the trend of solar radiation and NPP, and varied in sign across the globe.
DE: 0428 Carbon cycling (4806)
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0414, 0793, 4805, 4912)
DE: 1616 Climate variability (1635, 3305, 3309, 4215, 4513)
DE: 1631 Land/atmosphere interactions (1218, 1843, 3322)
DE: 1637 Regional climate change
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005