Course No.: Agromet.

509
Course Name: Applied Agricultural Climatology

Topic: Study of relationship between PAR & Short-wave

radiation

Submitted by: Parneet Kaur

Admission No.: L-2022-AE-171-M
Class: M. Tech. 1st year
Department: Soil & Water Engineering

Submitted to: Dr. Harleen Kaur

Department: Climate Change & Agricultural Meteorology
Radiation refers to the emission or transmission of electromagnetic waves with relatively high
frequencies and short wavelengths. These waves carry energy and can propagate through a vacuum
or various mediums, including air and water. These waves transfer energy to the relatively slow-
moving molecules of the cold body on which they happen to fall. Heat travelling by radiation is
known as radiant heat. The transfer of heat from the sun’s surface to planet Earth is a prominent
example.

Electromagnetic radiation is the most familiar form of radiation, and it consists of oscillating
electric and magnetic fields that travel through space at the speed of light. This type of radiation
encompasses a vast spectrum of wavelengths, from the very long radio waves to the very short
gamma rays. The electromagnetic spectrum includes the following major regions:
• Radio waves
• Microwaves
• Infrared radiation
• Visible light
• Ultraviolet radiation
• X-rays
• Gamma rays
Each region of the electromagnetic spectrum has distinct properties and interactions with
matter. For example, visible light is responsible for enabling human vision, while X-rays and
gamma rays can penetrate matter and are used in medical imaging and cancer treatments.
The electromagnetic spectrum is the distribution of electromagnetic radiation according
to photon energy, frequency, and wavelength.
Shortwave radiations specifically refer to the higher frequency end of this spectrum. Short-wave
radiation is radiant energy produced by the sun with wavelengths in the visible (VIS), near-
ultraviolet (UV), and near-infrared (NIR) spectra with wavelengths in the range of 300-3000 nm.
Solar radiation received at the earth’s surface without any change of direction, i.e., in line
with the sun, is called beam or direct radiation. The radiation received at earth’s surface from all
parts of sky’s hemisphere after being scattered in the atmosphere is called diffuse radiation. The
sum of the beam and diffuse radiation is referred to as global radiation. A portion of the incoming
radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere and some is absorbed by clouds. The albedo is the fraction
of the shortwave radiation arriving at the land surface that is reflected back into the atmosphere.
The shortwave radiation that is not reflected or absorbed above the land surface is available to
drive hydrologic processes.

Short-wave radiation is referred to total solar irradiance with wavelengths in the range of
300-3000 nm and is usually defined as-

where I (⅄) is the spectral irradiance.

The total amount of radiation reaching the horizontal land surface, Ig, is composed of direct
solar radiation, scattered solar radiation, and radiation resulting from surface reflectance, as
expressed by the formula below

where Ib is the surface direct solar radiation in orthogonal direction;

Id is direct solar radiation reaching horizontal surface;
Ias is the scattered radiation;
Ir is the radiation reflected by the surface; and
θ is the incident angle.

Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) refers to the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum
that is essential for photosynthesis in plants and other photosynthetic organisms. PAR includes
wavelengths of light ranging from approximately 400 to 700 nanometres (nm), which correspond
to the violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red regions of the visible light spectrum. These
wavelengths are the ones most efficiently absorbed by chlorophyll and other pigments involved in
the photosynthetic process. Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) is a subset of shortwave
radiation. This means that all PAR is shortwave radiation, but not all shortwave radiation is PAR.
 Photosynthesis is the biochemical process through which plants, algae, and certain bacteria
convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into glucose (a type of sugar) and oxygen, using light
energy. Chlorophyll, the primary pigment responsible for absorbing light during photosynthesis, is
most effective at capturing light in the PAR range. When light in this range strikes the chloroplasts
in plant cells, it initiates a series of chemical reactions that drive the synthesis of glucose and
oxygen.
The importance of PAR lies in its ability to drive primary productivity in ecosystems.
Primary productivity refers to the rate at which plants and other autotrophic organisms produce
organic matter through photosynthesis. Since PAR corresponds to the wavelengths of light that are
most efficiently used by photosynthetic organisms, it acts as the driving force for the growth and
development of plants.
PAR is commonly measured in micromoles of photons per square meter per second (µmol
photons m-2 s-1). This unit quantifies the number of photons in the PAR range that fall on a square
meter of a surface each second. Light meters or quantum sensors equipped with PAR sensors are
used to measure the intensity of photosynthetically active radiation in various environments.
Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) is the solar radiation within the wavelength range
of 400-700 nm.

where I (⅄) is the spectral irradiance.

Quantum/Line quantum sensors are used to measure PAR in terms of PPFD. The sensor is
placed perpendicular to the rows of the crop horizontally above canopy or in the open to get
incident PAR (IPAR). The sensor is inverted over the crop canopy to get the reflected PAR (RPAR)
and at the ground level to get the transmitted PAR (TPAR).

Absorbed PAR= IPAR-(TPAR+RPAR)

IPAR−(TPAR+RPAR)
PAR Interception (%)=
IPAR

Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) is an important factor for photosynthesis while

shortwave radiation is important in heating the Earth's surface and atmosphere. The specific
correlation between photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and short-wave radiation (SWR)
can be expressed by-
where Ig is the shortwave radiation reaching at surface, and ξ is the coefficient for the proportion
of PAR in shortwave radiation Ig. ξ ranges between 0 and 1, where 0 indicates no
photosynthetically active radiation (all shortwave radiation falls outside the PAR range), and 1
represents that all shortwave radiation is within the PAR range.

The linear regression equation between SWR and PAR can be developed as following-

Y= a + bX
Where X represents SWR value and Y represents PAR value.
The value of intercept (a) and slope (b) can be calculated by using the following formulae-
 REFERENCES

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Science Mission Directorate. (2010).

The Earth's Radiation Budget. Retrieved from NASA Science website:
http://science.nasa.gov/ems/13_radiationbudget
• Solar radiation (2020). Advanced Remote Sensing, 157–191. doi:10.1016/b97 8-0-12-
815826-5.00005-2
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave_radiation
• https://hogback.atmos.colostate.edu/cmmap/learn/clouds/climate2.html
• https://snr.unl.edu/agmet/radbal/shortwave.asp
• https://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/mini-lessonactivity/earths-energy-shortwave-radiation
• http://pressbooks-dev.oer.hawaii.edu/atmo/chapter/chapter-2-solar-and-infrared-radiation/