Weekly Solar Irradiance Data from the 1992 Atlantic ASTEX Campaign

376 by 326 pixel geospatial files provide weekly solar irradiance flux at the surface for June 1992, derived from METEOSAT satellite observations. The data was produced by the Centre Meteorologie Spatiale (CMS) as part of the FIRE ASTEX experiment to study marine stratocumulus clouds. Measurements are stored as flux values in tenths of Joules per square centimeter.

Use Cases

• Validate GCM solar radiation parameterizations against observed surface irradiance from the 'flux' data field.
• Analyze spatial patterns of solar energy reaching the ocean surface during the ASTEX campaign using the 0.04-degree resolution pixel grid.
• Correlate weekly irradiance variations from the monthly file series with concurrent cloud property observations from the field experiment.
• Study the radiative impact of marine stratocumulus cloud transitions using the time-series of surface flux data from June 1992.

Strengths

• Spatial resolution of 0.04 degrees per pixel across 376x326 grid cells.
• Direct observational basis from the METEOSAT satellite during a coordinated field experiment.

Limitations

• Temporal coverage is limited to a single month (June 1992).
• Documentation discrepancy regarding the number of data channels per file.
• Unknown total data volume and row count for statistical analysis.

Provenance

Source

NASA Earth Data (LARC_ASDC), from the Centre Meteorologie Spatiale (CMS).

Collection Method

Calculated from METEOSAT satellite observations.

Time Range

June 1992.

Freshness

null

Geography

Eastern North Atlantic Ocean, focused on the ASTEX experiment region.