02119nas a2200217   4500008004100000245007600041210006900117260001200186520131800198653001101516653003001527653002801557653002201585653002401607653001201631653001801643100002401661700002101685700002001706856017501726       2020                        eng d00aGIS tool to predict photosynthetically active radiation in a Dry Valley0 aGIS tool to predict photosynthetically active radiation in a Dry  c04/20203 a<p>Understanding primary productivity is a core research area of the National Science Foundation&#39;s Long-Term Ecological Research Network. This study presents the development of the GIS-based Topographic Solar Photosynthetically Active Radiation (T-sPAR) toolbox for Taylor Valley. It maps surface photosynthetically active radiation using four meteorological stations with ~20 years of data. T-sPAR estimates were validated with ground-truth data collected at Taylor Valley&#39;s major lakes during the 2014&ndash;15 and 2015&ndash;16 field seasons. The average daily error ranges from 0.13 mol photons m<sup>-2</sup> day<sup>-1</sup> (0.6%) at Lake Fryxell to 3.8 mol photons m<sup>-2</sup> day<sup>-1</sup> (5.8%) at Lake Hoare. We attribute error to variability in terrain and sun position. Finally, a user interface was developed in order to estimate total daily surface photosynthetically active radiation for any location and date within the basin. T-sPAR improves upon existing toolboxes and models by allowing for the inclusion of a statistical treatment of light attenuation due to cloud cover. The T-sPAR toolbox could be used to inform biological sampling sites based on radiation distribution, which could collectively improve estimates of net primary productivity, in some cases by up to 25%.</p>10aArcMap10aautomated weather station10adigital elevation model10aice-covered lakes10aMcMurdo Dry Valleys10aR model10aTaylor Valley1 aAcosta, Dimitri, R.1 aDoran, Peter, T.1 aMyers, Madeline  uhttps://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/gis-tool-to-predict-photosynthetically-active-radiation-in-a-dry-valley/BD0BE4FF6A8F3DAAF32D698797287078