Solar radiation is often the most important heat flux component that acts as a heat source to a waterbody. In EE, solar radiation data is required as part of the representation of the atmospheric condition. The user can determine the degree of its absorption onto the water surface or the spatial extent at which the absorption is impactful by configuring the distribution method in the Solar Radiation tab (Figure 1). These EE-available methods include:
No Solar Radiation
Absorb 100% Solar Radiation in Surface Layer
Use fast/slow Extinction Coefficients
Spatially & Temporally Varying Extinction Coefficients
The first two options are parameterized by EE while the last two approaches are associated with different sets of parameters including Light Extinction Coefficients (Figure 2) and Light Extinction Factors for Water Column Constituent (Figure 3). If the Water Quality is utilized, it is advisable to compute solar radiation with the Spatially & Temporally Varying Extinction Coefficients approach due to the incapabilities of other methods in simulating the temperature changes made by the Water Quality components in the water column.
The checkbox under the method identifier enables the replacement of input solar radiation with computed solar radiation. This means that data from the external forcing repository will not be used in the simulations.
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