Description: The Earth’s radiation budget is essential for driving the general circulation of the atmosphere and ocean, and for building the main conditions for the Earth's climate system. To detect changes in the Earth’s surface radiation field the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) and its central archive - the World Radiation Monitoring Center (WRMC) - was created in 1992. BSRN is a project of the Radiation Panel (now the Data and Assessment Panel) from the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) under the umbrella of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). It is the global baseline network for surface radiation for the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), contributing to the Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW), and forming a cooperative network with the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). The data are of primary importance in supporting the validation and confirmation of satellite and computer model estimates. At a relatively small number of stations (currently 58) in contrasting climatic zones, solar and atmospheric radiation is measured with instruments of the highest available accuracy and with high temporal resolution (mainly 1 minute). A total of about 7000 station-month datasets were available in the WRMC in mid 2013. All data are interactively accessible to external users for bona fide research purposes at no cost. This report provides information for scientists interested in high quality surface radiation data as well as for scientists running a BSRN station. It offers information about the available data, the data access and describes tools to visualize the data and to check their quality.

Description: Field observations of runoff generation in pristine montane cloud forests are scarce. However, this knowledge is important for a sustainable natural resources management. Here we report results of a study carried out in the San Francisco River basin (75,3 km2) located on the Amazonian side of the Cordillera Real in the southernmost Andes of Ecuador. The basin is mainly covered with cloud forest, sub-páramo, pasture and ferns. A nested sampling approach was used for the collection of stream water samples and discharge measurements in the main tributaries and outlet of the basin. Additionally, soil and rock water samples were collected. Weekly to biweekly water grab samples were taken at all stations in the period April 2007 to November 2008. Hydrometric, mean residence time and mixing model approaches allowed identifying the main hydrological processes that control the runoff generation in the basin. Results clearly reveal that flow during dry conditions mainly consists of lateral flow through the C-horizon and cracks in the top weathered bedrock layer. The data shows that all catchments have an important contribution of this deep water to runoff, no matter whether pristine or deforested. During normal to low precipitation intensities, when antecedent soil moisture conditions favor water infiltration, vertical flow paths to deeper soil horizons with subsequent lateral sub-surface flow contributes most to streamflow. Under wet conditions in forested catchments streamflow is controlled by near-surface lateral flow through the organic horizon, and it is unlikely that Horton overland flow occurs during storm events. By absence of the litter layer in pasture streamflow under wet conditions primarily originates from the rooted surface layers and the A horizon, and Hortonian overland flow during extreme events.