Vol. 11, Special Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Kader Ali Sarkar, Ravi Ranjan Kumar, Digvijay Singh Dhakre and Debasis Bhattacharya

Abstract:
In this paper, climatological and spatiotemporal variability of solar radiation and its trend analysis, fluctuations, and abrupt changes are studied in seven districts in agro-climatic Zone-I of Bihar. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric statistical tests have been employed to evaluate the variability and trend patterns. The descriptive results revealed that lower variability was observed in annual and seasonal solar radiation. At spatial scales, the variability of solar radiation was observed to be higher in Vaishali and Gopalganj districts, while lower variability was observed in the West Champaran district. After trends analysis, the non-parametric tests revealed the statistically significant decreasing trends observed in the annual and winter seasons for all seven districts. In the case of summer, autumn, and spring seasons, most of the districts also observed significant decreasing trends. The rate of decrease in solar radiation was observed the highest in the Gopalganj district (for annual, summer, and autumn seasons) and Vaishali district (for winter and spring seasons). According to Pettitt Mann-Whitney (PMW) test, the results found that most districts saw a shift between 1997 and 2012. Overall, this study has added to the knowledge in determining the most vulnerable areas in Bihar (agro-climatic Zone-I) to solar radiation.