A Primary Study of the Variations of Vertical Radiation with the Beijing 325-m Meteorological Tower

The Beijing 325-m Meteorological Tower (325MT) is used to observe the vertical variation of solar radiation. Results of the experiments indicate that the automatic radiation monitoring system, including a sun tracker and data collection system, works well and all the specifications meet WMO observation standards. The measurement data show that there is a significant radiation decrease from 320 m to the surface, where the difference is only about 30 W m-2 on light air-pollution days, while the maximum reaches about 110 W m-2 when heavy pollution appears near the ground. The global UV radiation decreases on heavy air-pollution days and under poor visibility conditions, and the difference between 300 m and 8 m is larger than on clear days.