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Solar Radiation Versus Climate Change

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Abbreviations

Brightening:

Describes the evidence for a partial recovery from prior dimming at many locations between the 1980s and 2000.

Dimming:

Also known as “global dimming,” a popular expression coined to describe the evidence for a widespread decline in surface solar radiation between the 1950s and 1980s.

Early brightening:

Describes the evidence for an increase in surface solar radiation during the 1930s and 1940s seen in the longest surface radiation records in Europe.

Pyranometer:

Measurement device to record the total flux (diffuse and direct) of solar radiation incident on a horizontal plane at the Earth surface.

Surface solar radiation:

Also known as “global radiation” or “surface insolation,” refers to the solar radiation (sunlight) incident at the Earth’s surface.

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Acknowledgments

I acknowledge support from the National Centre for Competence in Climate Research (NCCR Climate) of the Swiss National Science Foundation. This entry contributes to the efforts of the working group “Global Energy Balance” of the International Radiation Commission (IRC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Universitätsstr. 16, CH-8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Dr. Martin Wild

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Correspondence to Martin Wild .

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  1. RAMTECH LIMITED, Larkspur, CA, USA

    Robert A. Meyers

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Wild, M. (2012). Solar Radiation Versus Climate Change . In: Meyers, R.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0851-3_448

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