Researchers from the University of Gerona and the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (Switzerland) have shown that since the eighties the solar radiation that reaches the Iberian Peninsula has increased by 2.3% every decade . The increase is related to a lower presence of clouds . The work has been published in the journal Global and Planetary Change . According to the researchers, what has increased the most is direct solar radiation reaching us from the Sun, while diffuse radiation, scattered by cloud masses, aerosols and atmospheric gases, has been reduced.
Regarding the increase by seasons, global solar radiation has grown 6.5 W / m2 every decade in summer, 4.1 W / m2 during autumn, 3.2 W / m2 in spring and 1.7 W / m2 in winter. The increase in radiation could be accompanied by a greater amount of ultraviolet radiation, which can cause skin cancer when we are exposed to excess .
It not only happens in Spain. The increase in global solar radiation is a phenomenon that has been observed in different corners of the planet for almost 30 years and is called global brightening .
