Interdiurnal variability of sunshine duration in Greece

Abstract

The variations of the sunshine duration from one day to the next, which are known as interdiurnal variations, are studied for three meteorological stations in Greece, by using the same decade (1971 – 1980) data information. The stations used can satisfactorily cover the geographical area of Greece, since they lie on a merdional axis which extends all along the country. The study consists of the examination of the steady conditions, the rises and falls, as well as the variations irrespective of sign. The interdiurnal variation of sunshine duration shows generally higher values in the cold period than in the warm one, and particularly, the months of April and May indicate higher values for the three stations. This finding is due to the interdiurnal cloud variation, which is more intense in the cold period and in northernmost station than in the warm period and in the southernmost station, and is related to the regime of the general atmospheric circulation over the Mediterranean area.