Daily solar radiation for the Australian continent between 1970-2014. Daily solar radiation regulates rates of plant growth and crop yield. Modelled by expressing each daily value as a ratio of the external to the atmosphere value and then modelling this ratio as a function of longitude, latitude, normalised daily temperature range and daily rainfall using ANUSPLIN Version 4.5. Daily solar radiation data between 1970 and 1996 for 39 Bureau of Meteorology stations were used for the analysis after rejecting stations with short records or with many missing records. Cross validation residuals for all accepted data points had a mean absolute value of 2.3 MJ per square metre per day and a root mean square value of 3.3 MJ per square metre per day. These corresponded to relative errors of around 12% and 17% respectively. A comprehensive assessment of the analysis and the factors contributing to the quality of the final interpolated solar radiation grids is in preparation.
Daily solar radiation regulates rates of plant growth.
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