This undated photo shows the building of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. (PHOTO / IC)

BEIJING - A Chinese research institute released a 34-year dataset of the global surface solar radiation, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Monday.

The dataset provides basic data for land surface process simulations and can also contribute to photovoltaic applications and solar power station site selection

The high resolution (10 km) dataset provides data on the global surface solar radiation from July 1983 to June 2017. It has the field's longest time series of the country, said Tang Wenjun, a researcher of the dataset from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research under CAS.

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Users can download the data for free on the institute's website, according to the CAS.

The dataset has a function of providing basic data for land surface process simulations including glacier, hydrology, ecology and agriculture. It can also contribute to photovoltaic applications and solar power station site selection.

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The research result has been published in the journal Earth System Science Data.