Figure 1

Maps generated by using IDL® (http://www.harrisgeospatial.com/SoftwareTechnology/IDL.aspx#language). (a) Annual insolation obtained from the Surface meteorology and Solar Energy (SSE) web portal supported by the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) POWER Project. (b) Annual average of AOD at 555 nm computed from retrievals of the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument³⁹ (aboard Terra satellite; https:// DOI 10.5067/Terra/MISR/MIL3MAE_L3.004) over the period 2006–2016; (c) Average of the annual precipitation over the period 2004–2012 based on the dataset of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) was obtained from the “Observations for Climate Model Intercomparison (obs4MIPs)” project hosted on the Earth System Grid Federation (https://www.earthsystemcog.org/projects/obs4mips/).