ExtraRad, Annual Cycles of Extraterrestrial Incoming Solar Radiation

This document shortly describes ExtraRad, a software to provide annual cycles of 
extraterrestrial incoming solar radiation for any location on Earth or for a 
list of locations read from an input file.

ExtraRad is programmed by Jrgen Grieser, FAO/NRC (agromet@fao.org) February, 2007.

Purpose:

The annual cycle of incoming solar radiation is an important input variable for many
applications in meteorology and climatology. ExtraRad provides this annual cycle
in different resolutions/aggregations and a wide range of common units.

Output:

a) Single-Point Mode
The user has to provide only the latitude of the desired location. ExtraRad produces
a file with the extraterrestrial radiation in daily, weekly, dekadal or monthly 
resolution and the desired unit.

b) Multiple-Point (Batch) Mode
ExtraRad can provide the annual cycle of extraterrestrial radiation for more than one 
location at a time. In this case the locations have to be provided as a list of latitudes
in an input file.

Units:

The different units of the energy flux per unit area per time interval are self 
explaining. mm/day and mm/dekad, however, are no units of radiation flux. Nevertheless 
they are provided here. They describe the equivalent evaporation (i.e. the amount of 
water that could be evaporated by the energy flux). These units are of particular 
interest for the estimation of local reference evaporation. For further details see
 the FAO irrigation and drainage paper 56, Crop evapotranspiration,
http://www.fao.org/docrep/X0490E/x0490e00.htm

Setup:

ExtraRad comes as a zipped file containing the executable ExtraRad.exe plus the MS Windows 
common dialogue as an activeX component, necessary to run it on some configurations. 

In order to run ExtraRad just extract the zipped file into a directory and run ExtraRad.exe.


Warranty and Disclaimer:

FAO declines all responsibility for errors or deficiencies in the software or in the 
documentation accompanying it, for program maintenance and upgrading as well as for 
any damage that may arise from them. FAO also assumes no responsibility for errors and 
omissions in the data provided. Users are, however, kindly asked to report any errors or 
deficiencies in this product to FAO.

All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material in this information 
product for educational or other non-commercial purposes are authorized without any 
prior written permission from the copyright holders provided the source is fully 
acknowledged. Reproduction of material in this information product for resale or other 
commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission of the copyright holders. 
Applications for such permission should be addressed to the Chief, Publishing 
Management Service, Information Division, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 
Rome, Italy or by e-mail to copyright@fao.org.  FAO 2007

Please report any bugs or comments to agromet@fao.org

