Dependence Structure of Daily Temperature and Solar Radiation

ABSTRACT DAILY weather variables tend to persist in time and are mutually interdependent. The dependence of daily maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and solar radiation is analyzed for 31 stations in the United States. Maximum temperature and minimum temperature have an average lag-one serial correlation coefficient of 0.671 and 0.621, respectively. Solar radia-tion has an average serial correlation coefficient of 0.251. The serial correlation of maximum temperature and solar radiation are related to location. The lag-zero cross correlation between maximum and minimum tempera-ture averaged 0.633. Maximum temperature and radia-tion have an average cross correlation of 0.186, and minimum temperature and radiation have an average cross correlation of -0.193. All of the cross correlation coefficients varied with season and location.