Numerical Assessment of Downward Incoming Solar Irradiance in Smoke Influenced Regions—A Case Study in Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado

Abstract

Smoke aerosol plumes generated during the biomass burning season in Brazil suffer long-range transport, resulting in large aerosol optical depths over an extensive domain. As a consequence, downward surface solar irradiance, and in particular the direct component, can be significantly reduced. Accurate solar energy assessments considering the radiative contribution of biomass burning aerosols are required to support Brazil’s solar power sector. This work presents the 2nd generation of the radiative transfer model BRASIL-SR, developed to improve the aerosol representation and reduce the uncertainties in surface solar irradiance estimates in cloudless hazy conditions and clean conditions. Two numerical experiments allowed to assess the model’s skill using observational or regional MERRA-2 reanalysis AOD data in a region frequently affected by smoke. Four ground measurement sites provided data for the model output validation. Results for DNI obtained using δ-Eddington scaling and without scaling are compared, with the latter presenting the best skill in all sites and for both experiments. An increase in the relative error of DNI results obtained with δ-Eddington optical depth scaling as AOD increases is evidenced. For DNI, MBD deviations ranged from −2.3 to −0.5%, RMSD between 2.3 and 4.7% and OVER between 0 and 5.3% when using in-situ AOD data. Overall, our results indicate a good skill of BRASIL-SR for the estimation of both GHI and DNI.

Quantifying of Vision through Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal Double-Glazed Window

“…Secondly, solar radiation data encompass global horizontal irradiance, diffused horizontal irradiance, and global vertical irradiance. The direct normal irradiance (DNI) is also needed for the weather data file; however, Equation (1) was used to estimate it [36]:…”

Reducing uncertainties of climate projections on solar energy resources in Brazil

“…Several studies suggest that the ERA5 reanalysis database fulfills the required features (long and continuous time coverage, spatially homogeneous, and reliable ground data assimilation) to be the truth reference database [21,34]. However, the ERA5 overestimates the SSR throughout Brazilian territory due to limitations in its numerical radiative parameterization like aerosol optical depth (AOD) due to biomass burning events in the Amazon and Central area of Brazil during the dry season and sub-grid shallow clouds that prevails in the tropical humid atmosphere over the continent [35,36,37].…”

“…The BSR database comes from the radiative transfer model BRASIL-SR, a semi-empirical model based on the two-stream approach to solve the radiative transfer equation in the atmosphere using cloudiness data obtained from GOES-East satellite imagery [35].…”

Análisis del índice de claridad atmosférica diaria en la ciudad de Puno, 2014-2021

“…Por otra parte, los aerosoles producidos por la quema de biomasa se dispersan a gran distancia lo que, añadido a la presencia de nubes, reduce significativamente la radiación solar directa (Casagrande et al, 2021) y atenúa su incidencia (Danso et al, 2020). Por ello, la evaluación correcta de las condiciones de la nubosidad en cualquier lugar es importante para determinar la disponibilidad característica del recurso solar (Egeonu et al, 2000).…”