Spatial disaggregation of satellite-derived irradiance using a high-resolution digital elevation model

Ruiz‐Arias, José A.; Cebecauer, Tomáš; Tovar‐Pescador, J.; Šúri, Marcel

doi:10.1016/j.solener.2010.06.002

Cited by 64 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The vertical gradient of global irradiance between GRID and SUB is mainly determined by the direct component together with difference in the optical path length m, assuming that attenuative properties of the atmosphere are constant between the two elevations. Therefore, we apply an elevation correction to SW↓ dir grid only, largely following methods of Ruiz-Arias et al (2010b) (Fig. 3b).…”

Section: Radiative Fluxesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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TopoSCALE v.1.0: downscaling gridded climate data in complex terrain

2014

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Abstract. Simulation of land surface processes is problematic in heterogeneous terrain due to the the high resolution required of model grids to capture strong lateral variability caused by, for example, topography, and the lack of accurate meteorological forcing data at the site or scale it is required. Gridded data products produced by atmospheric models can fill this gap, however, often not at an appropriate spatial resolution to drive land-surface simulations. In this study we describe a method that uses the well-resolved description of the atmospheric column provided by climate models, together with high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs), to downscale coarse-grid climate variables to a fine-scale subgrid. The main aim of this approach is to provide highresolution driving data for a land-surface model (LSM).The method makes use of an interpolation of pressurelevel data according to topographic height of the subgrid. An elevation and topography correction is used to downscale short-wave radiation. Long-wave radiation is downscaled by deriving a cloud-component of all-sky emissivity at grid level and using downscaled temperature and relative humidity fields to describe variability with elevation. Precipitation is downscaled with a simple non-linear lapse and optionally disaggregated using a climatology approach.We test the method in comparison with unscaled grid-level data and a set of reference methods, against a large evaluation dataset (up to 210 stations per variable) in the Swiss Alps. We demonstrate that the method can be used to derive meteorological inputs in complex terrain, with most significant improvements (with respect to reference methods) seen in variables derived from pressure levels: air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and incoming long-wave radiation.This method may be of use in improving inputs to numerical simulations in heterogeneous and/or remote terrain, especially when statistical methods are not possible, due to lack of observations (i.e. remote areas or future periods).

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Section: Radiative Fluxesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The hourly regression model of Ruiz-Arias et al (2010b) used to partition short-wave radiation into direct ad diffuse components. Compute the clearness index, k t :…”

Section: C4 Sw↓ Partitioningmentioning

confidence: 99%

TopoSCALE v.1.0: downscaling gridded climate data in complex terrain

2014

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“…The relatively high spatio-temporal resolution, and the large (near-global) coverage of the L3 MODIS dataset make it especially suitable for use with Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models Ruiz-Arias et al, 2010, 2012. We will focus here only on AOD because it is the most important aerosol optical property driving solar extinction, and thus the incident surface shortwave irradiance -most importantly the direct irradiance.…”

Section: Motivations and Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the Level-3 MODIS daily aerosol optical depth in the context of surface solar radiation and numerical weather modeling

Ruiz‐Arias

Dudhia

Gueymard³

et al. 2013

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. The daily Level-3 MODIS aerosol optical depth (AOD) product is a global daily spatial aggregation of the Level-2 MODIS AOD (10-km spatial resolution) into a regular grid with a resolution of 1 • × 1 • . It offers interesting characteristics for surface solar radiation and numerical weather modeling applications. However, most of the validation efforts so far have focused on Level-2 products and only rarely on Level 3. In this contribution, we compare the Level-3 Collection 5.1 MODIS AOD dataset from the Terra satellite available since 2000 against observed daily AOD values at 550 nm from more than 500 AERONET ground stations around the globe. Overall, the mean error of the dataset is 0.03 (17 %, relative to the mean ground-observed AOD), with a root mean square error of 0.14 (73 %, relative to the same), but these errors are also found highly dependent on geographical region. We propose new functions for the expected error of the Level-3 AOD, as well as for both its mean error and its standard deviation. Additionally, we investigate the role of pixel count vis-à-vis the reliability of the AOD estimates, and also explore to what extent the spatial aggregation from Level 2 to Level 3 influences the total uncertainty in the Level-3 AOD. Finally, we use a radiative transfer model to investigate how the Level-3 AOD uncertainty propagates into the calculated direct normal and global horizontal irradiances.

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“… Terrain: systematic errors may originate also from terrain shading and steep elevation changes. These errors can be eliminated to a large extent by implementation terrain correction algorithm in the satellite model by (see [12]). …”

Section: Mismatch Between Satellite and Measured Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Site-adaptation of satellite-based DNI and GHI time series: Overview and SolarGIS approach

Cebecauer

Šúri

2016

AIP Conference Proceedings

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Abstract. Site adaptation is an approach of reducing uncertainty in the satellite-based longterm estimates of solar radiation by combining them with short-term high-accuracy measurements at a project site. We inventory the existing approaches and introduce the SolarGIS method that is optimized for providing bankable data for energy simulation in Concentrating Solar Power. We also indicate the achievable uncertainty of SolarGIS model outputs based on siteadaptation of projects executed in various geographical conditions.

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Spatial disaggregation of satellite-derived irradiance using a high-resolution digital elevation model

Cited by 64 publications

References 25 publications

TopoSCALE v.1.0: downscaling gridded climate data in complex terrain

TopoSCALE v.1.0: downscaling gridded climate data in complex terrain

Assessment of the Level-3 MODIS daily aerosol optical depth in the context of surface solar radiation and numerical weather modeling

Site-adaptation of satellite-based DNI and GHI time series: Overview and SolarGIS approach

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