Temporal Variability of Solar Radiation During the GOAmazon 2014/15 Experiment

Abstract The present work studied the temporal variability of the three components of solar irradiation (global, direct and diffuse) at the Manacapuru region, 66 km distant from Manaus-AM, within the scope of the GOAmazon 2014/15 project, analyzing data for the years of 2014 and 2015. Also it was analyzed the cloud cover data and precipitation. In general, the cloud cover for both years were similar and their typical values are 20-25% (dry season) and 35-40% (wet period). The typical values of global, direct and diffuse solar irradiance were presented for different time scale (hourly and seasonal) as well as variations for the years 2014 and 2015 (interannual scale). The interrelationships amongst the 3 components for hourly and monthly values were presented and it can be noticed that global and direct solar irradiances were directly related although both were inversely correlated with the diffuse solar irradiance. Finally, the ENSO 2015 event was discussed and how it was impacted, the measurements as it had lower cloud cover and rain the higher aerosol concentration.