Preliminary communication
HOMOGENIZATION OF THE HELLENIC CLOUD COVER TIME SERIES - PRELIMINARY RESULTS
ATHANASSIOS A. ARGIRIOU
orcid.org/0000-0001-6026-9835
; Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, Department of Physics, University of Patras, GR-265 00 Patras, Greece
ANNA MAMARA
; Hellenic National Meteorological Service, El. Venizelou 14, GR-167 77 Elliniko, Greece
ELIAS DIMADIS
; Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, Department of Physics, University of Patras, GR-265 00 Patras, Greece
Abstract
Cloud cover is an important meteorological parameter because it affects the ra-
diative energy balance of the Earth and precipitation and plays a major role in the hydrological cycle. Impact of clouds on the radiative balance is twofold: cloud cover modifies the albedo of the Earth and the atmospheric long wave radiative exchange. Long records of cloud cover data are the result of human estimations made during the synoptic observation hours at each meteorological station. Currently the quantification of cloud cover has been automated due to the advent of modern remote sensing space (e.g. satellites) and ground sky monitoring techniques (e.g. sky cameras). All weather time series records may suffer from inhomogeneities; their use in climatology requires homogenization. In this
work we attempt a preliminary homogenization of the cloud cover time series of the Hellenic National Weather Service (HNMS) network. Data come from 36 meteorological stations, and cover the period from 1975 to 2004. Raw data comprise (synoptic) hourly cloud cover observations which we subjected to quality control before producing daily and then monthly average cloud cover time series. For this homogenization exercise we used the HOMER software tool.
Keywords
cloud cover; homogenization; remote sensing
Hrčak ID:
231267
URI
Publication date:
26.12.2019.
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