A method for estimation of net surface shortwave radiation over the Bay of Bengal

Abstract

An attempt has been made to estimate surface shortwave flux over the Bay of Bengal using MONEX-79 data set with the help of a semi-empirical model. Clouds play a vital role in determining and modifying the shortwave flux reaching at the oceanic surface. Inadequate and inaccurate ground based cloud observations are very much responsible for the errors in the estimation of the shortwave flux. To minimise the errors in the estimation, a regression approach has been developed. The method, thus developed reduces considerable errors involved in the estimation of shortwave flux. The improved method reduces the mean absolute error of the estimation of the shortwave flux from 180. Wm^-2 to 139.5 Wm^-2 in the case of dependent data set and 186.2 Wm^-2 to 148.6 Wm^-2 in the case of independent data set.