Shortwave surface radiation budgeting network for spatio-temporal observation of cloud inhomogeneity fields

Understanding and representing the cloud radiative effects in climate models is important for accurately simulating Earth's energy budget and for predicting cloud radiative feedbacks in future climate simulations. As part of High Definition Clouds and Precipitation for advancing Climate Prediction Observation Prototype Experiment (HOPE), a set of 100 low-cost pyranometers were developed to observe the small scale spatio-temporal variability of the cloud induced short-wave radiation at the surface. These were set up during HOPE campaigns over (a) Jülich (~ 99 stations in 7 x 10 sq. km spatial domain) in April to July 2013 and (b) Melpitz (~ 50 stations in 5 x 5 sq. km spatial domain) in September to October 2013. Each pyranometer station is additionally equipped with weather sensors for ambient air temperature and relative humidity measurements. Qualitative screening of network data is performed by adopting various observational and statistical methods. Spatio-temporal analysis between the measured atmospheric transmittance from surface radiation network and TOA reflectance from MSG-SEVIRI high resolution short-wave broadband channel will be explored for different cases. Details of data analysis, quality screening procedures and interpretation from spatial variance analysis will be presented.