Conference Paper

Proceedings of Building Simulation 2019: 16th Conference of IBPSA

Using Satellite-Derived Solar Radiation to Create Weather Files of Unprecedented Accuracy and Reliability

Yu Joe Huang
White Box Technologies, United States of America

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26868/25222708.2019.211389
Abstract: The biggest weakness of weather files has always been the solar radiation, which alone of all the climatic parameters are not measured but calculated using various solar models. The advent of geosynchronous weather satellites has now provided an uninterrupted record of cloud conditions over the entire world for up to two decades. Furthermore, interest in solar power around the world has spurred research in the accurate estimation of solar radiation from satellite observations and support by governmental organizations to make this information freely available or at low cost on the Web. The availability of such solar radiation data, coupled with the concurrent availability of standard weather data, provides the simulation community with a golden opportunity to create weather files of unprecedented accuracy for many more locations than previously possible. This paper will give an overview of how satellitederived radiation is obtained, and its accuracy compared to detailed ground measurements and older modelling methods. The paper will also describe practical aspects such as the currently available public Web resources, including their coverage and resolution over space and time, and how to avoid pitfalls in merging that data with data from standard weather reports.
Keywords: Weather, Satellite, Solar Radiation
Pages: 4846 - 4853
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