Abstract Variations of solar radiation is related to energy planning and architectural designing. It is important to estimate solar radiation from other climate factors because of the limited measurement solar radiation data. In this study, temporospatial changes of solar radiation and sunshine hour are analysed for global dimming/brightening periods based on meteorological data in China. Results show that the trends of solar radiation and sunshine hour are both decreasing dramatically for 1961–1990 (the global dimming period) but levelling off for 1991–2010 (the global brightening period), which indicates that sunshine hour can be used the reliable indicator of solar radiation. Spatially, the change trends of solar radiation are consistent with sunshine hour in 36 stations during the period of 1961–1990, but they are consistent in just 27 stations during the period of 1991–2010. To assess the impact of changing solar radiation on Angstrom-Prescott parameters (a and b) in the equation of solar radiation estimation from sunshine hour, geographically weighted regression is developed to calculate a and b. There is not dramatic difference in the spatial patterns of a and b for the period of 1961–2010 and 1961–1990. However, there is significantly inconsistent changes in a and b during the global brightening period compared with the global dimming period, which suggests that global dimming/brightening has important impact on estimating solar radiation from sunshine hour, with dramatic variability among different regions.