The main objective of this work was to assess the tendency of time series of net radiation in the northeastern region of Brazil from the NCEP/NCAR database of the 1948-2006 period. Also, the annual time series of data observed at surface of global solar radiation and class A pan evaporation for two stations located in the semiarid area of studied region were analyzed. Long-term variability of the time series was assessed by the Mann-Kendall test. The time series of net radiation showed a reduction through the 1948-1987 period, statistically significant at the 0.01 level of probability by the Mann-Kendall test. However, the 1988 to 2006 period showed an inverse pattern in net radiation with positive trends. Results also indicate that observed data in global solar radiation and class A pan evaporation at Petrolina, PE and Juazeiro, BA presented an accentuated decrease through the study period statistically significant at 0.01 level of probality by the Mann-Kendall test. These results suggest that the global dimming effect is present in the northeastern region of Brazil.
class A pan evaporation; global dimming; Mann-Kendall test
