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The satellite products overestimate surface solar irradiance by 10.0 W m\u22122 in CLARA-A2 and 7.5 W m\u22122 in SARAH-E on average. A strong urbanization effect has been noted behind the large positive bias in China. The bias decreased after 2004, possibly linked to a weakened attenuating effect of aerosols on radiation in China. Both satellite datasets can reproduce the monthly anomalies of SSR, indicated by a significant correlation around 0.8. Due to the neglection of temporal aerosol variability in the satellite algorithms, the discrepancy between the satellite-estimated and ground-observed SSR trends slightly increases in 1999\u20132015 as compared to 1993\u20132015. The seasonal performance of the satellite products shows a better accuracy during warm than cold seasons. With respect to the spatial performance, the effects from anthropogenic aerosols, dust aerosols and high elevation and snow-covered surfaces should be well considered in the satellite SSR retrievals to further improve the performance in the eastern, northwestern and southwestern parts of China, respectively.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10121977","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,12,7]],"date-time":"2018-12-07T03:46:14Z","timestamp":1544154374000},"page":"1977","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":26,"title":["Validation of CM SAF CLARA-A2 and SARAH-E Surface Solar Radiation Datasets over China"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2639-7937","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yawen","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Climate Change and Natural Disaster Studies, Zhuhai Key Laboratory of Dynamics Urban Climate and Ecology, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"J\u00f6rg","family":"Trentmann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Deutscher Wetterdienst, 63067 Offenbach, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Wenping","family":"Yuan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Climate Change and Natural Disaster Studies, Zhuhai Key Laboratory of Dynamics Urban Climate and Ecology, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3619-7568","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Martin","family":"Wild","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,12,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"12","DOI":"10.1016\/j.solener.2015.03.039","article-title":"Projections of long-term changes in solar radiation based on CMIP5 climate models and their influence on energy yields of photovoltaic systems","volume":"116","author":"Wild","year":"2015","journal-title":"Sol. 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