Amarakoon, Dharmaratne M.; Chen, Abraham Anthony
Author Affiliation, Ana.
Department of Physics
Estimating daytime net radiation using routine metereological data in Jamaica
Caribbean Journal of Science
Date of Publication
An empirical scheme is formulated for estimating daytime net radiation in Jamaica by adjusting the net long-wave radiation component in the radiation balance equation. The adjustment incorporates the effect of soil surface temperature and sunshine in terms of global short-wave radiation. The net radiation estimated using the scheme agrees well with the measured net radiation. The correlation coefficients are between 0.98 and 1.0, and the root mean square errors for the correlations between the measured net radiation and the estimated net radiation are 10 percent or less of the average measured net radiation. The scheme adapts well to different climatic areas, surface moisture conditions, soil types, and seasons. The comparisons between the measured hourly average net radiation and estimated values, with and without the adjustment, demonstrae the contribution from the adjustment is very important during daytime, except in the morning and late afternoon hours. This is so because surface heating is weak due to low global short-wave radiation fluxes, and sunshine is low during the morning and late afternoon.....