Can measurements of the near-infrared solar spectral irradiance be reconciled? A new ground-based assessment between 4000-10000 cm-1

Elsey, J., Coleman, M. D., Gardiner, T. and Shine, K. P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2672-9978 (2017) Can measurements of the near-infrared solar spectral irradiance be reconciled? A new ground-based assessment between 4000-10000 cm-1. Geophysical Research Letters, 44 (19). pp. 10071-10080. ISSN 0094-8276 doi: 10.1002/2017GL073902

Abstract/Summary

The near-infrared solar spectral irradiance (SSI) is of vital importance for understanding the Earth’s radiation budget, and in Earth observation applications. Differences between previously published solar spectra (including the commonly-used ATLAS3 spectrum) reach up to 10% at the low-wavenumber end of the 4000-10000 cm-1 (2.5 – 1 μm) spectral region. The implications for the atmospheric sciences are significant, since this spectral region contains 25% of the incoming total solar irradiance. This work details an updated analysis of the CAVIAR SSI, featuring additional analysis techniques and an updated uncertainty budget using a Monte Carlo method. We report good consistency with ATLAS3 in the 7000-10000 cm-1 region where there is confidence in these results due to agreement with other spectra, but ~7% lower in the 4000-7000 cm-1 region, in general agreement with several other analyses.