Smoke from the Canadian wildfires was very noticeable on Wednesday and without much for clouds in the sky, the impact of the smoke on received solar radiation can be generally inferred. The featured chart compares a one minute time series of solar radiation from the ISU Soil Moisture Network station at Kanawha for Wednesday and the previous day, which was a mostly clear day. The bottom panel directly contrasts the two and the smoke impact of about negative 75 Watts per meter squared can be seen. The legend shows the integrated radiation total expressed in megajoules. The net impact was about a 10% decrease in solar radiation. So is the net impact of smoke filled skies always negative for solar radiation? Well, maybe not as smoke filled skies can suppress afternoon cloud development, which would have decreased received solar radiation by perhaps higher amounts. But the general case is likely often negative.

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