The Distribution of Solar Radiation Throughout Southern Africa

Drummond, A. J.; Vowinckel, E.

doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1957)014<0343:tdosrt>2.0.co;2

Cited by 22 publications

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“…In this regard, several island countries in the SWIO including Reunion Island (Selosse et al ., 2018) are actively engaged in the development of solar energy technologies such as solar thermal or photovoltaic conversion systems. Because of the range of spatial and temporal scales over which solar radiation incident at the surface varies (Drummond and Vowinckel, 1957; Bishop and Rossow, 1991; Power and Mills, 2005; Ohmura, 2009; Perez et al ., 2013; Zou et al ., 2019), a detailed examination of the solar resource availability and space–time variability over the SWIO region is then needed. This necessitates the development of high‐resolution gridded solar products with spatially‐ and temporally‐continuous coverage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraseasonal and synoptic climate variability of surface solar radiation over South‐West Indian Ocean: Regional climate modelling

2021

Intl Journal of Climatology

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The abundant surface solar radiation (SSR) over South-West Indian Ocean (SWIO) presents significant temporal variability. To characterize this temporal variability is important for the application of solar energy, such as photovoltaic industry. This article studied the intraseasonal and synoptic climate variability of SSR by regional climate modelling over SWIO region. The regional climate model, RegCM4's skill is first evaluated through analysing the seasonal mean SSR with the precipitation, near surface temperature and total cloud cover in austral summer and winter. The basic validation of those simulated parameters with the reference data showed model's performance on SSR. The austral summer (November-February) 1999-2008 was chosen to search the Madden-Julian Oscillation patterns and tropical temperate troughs which are the major expression of intraseasonal and synoptic climate variability. The circulation, moisture fluxes, and radiation fluxes have been checked at the beginning for RegCM4's input dataset (ERA-Interim) to find the signals. Then, the output simulation results were taking into account to see if the model can reproduce the intraseasonal and synoptic climate variability or not. SSR from SARAH-E (CM SAF@5 km) as the reference dataset in the end has been used to validate the simulated patterns, which showed that the eastward SSR anomalies propagation and negative SSR anomalies bands can be observed in RegCM4 and the according satellite dataset. These results identified and explained SSR's intraseasonal and synoptic climate variability over SWIO region, which provide a way through RegCM to perform SSR's evaluation and prediction.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraseasonal and synoptic climate variability of surface solar radiation over South‐West Indian Ocean: Regional climate modelling

2021

Intl Journal of Climatology

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“…The geographic location of South Africa is highly favorable for solar energybased applications. Previous studies (Schulze and McGee, 1976;Drummond and Vowinckel, 1957) indicate that over South Africa daily insolation may reach up to 29 MJm -2 . The population of South Africa is over 50 million and to satisfy energy demand sustainably renewable energy is necessary.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Solar radiation at any location depends upon the land elevation, sunshine duration, cloud cover, moisture and dust content (Singh et al, 2013;Drummond and Vowinckel, 1957). Figure 2 shows spatial variation of the annual mean SW Flux in South Africa from 1980 to 2009, where it can be clearly observed that the north and north-west regions of South Africa receives more solar radiation than the south and south-east.…”

Section: Spatial Variation Of Sw Flux From 1980 To 2009mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ranking South African provinces on the basis of MERRA 2D surface incident shortwave flux

Singh

2016

J. energy South. Afr.

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“…Early assessments of solar energy availability (i.e. Drummond & Vowinckel, 1957;Schulze & McGee, 1976), indicate that available insolation is as high as 29 MJ m -2 d-1. Other more recent assessments of solar radiation in South Africa (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SASRAD: An hourly-timestep solar radiation database for South Africa

Ciolkosz

2009

J. energy South. Afr.

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A methodology is presented for the correction and filling of solar radiation data at sites within South Africa, with the aim of creating a continuous, hourly-timestep dataset for multiple locations. Data from twenty sites, collected by the Agricultural Research Council, are analysed with regard to the amount of data requiring offset or multiplier adjustment, as well as the amount of bad data. A range correction algorithm is implemented based on the 90th percentile (10% exceedance) hourly irradiance, as a function of site latitude and elevation. The resulting, corrected data set is given the title: South African Solar Radiation Database (SAS-RAD). Comparisons are made with two other solar radiation datasets, the South African Atlas of Agrohydrology and Climatology, and a limited set of older historical data from the South African Weather Service (SAWS).Results indicate that the SASRAD dataset matches well with other datasets, with major discrepancies apparently due to problems with the other data sets, rather than the SASRAD data. The Coefficient of Multiple Determination (R 2 ) between the Atlas and SASRAD for monthly radiation is 0.927, and the mean error between three of the SASRAD sites and the corresponding SAWS data is 1.1 MJ m -2 d -1 . The fraction of data requiring correction varied from 11% to 100%, depending on the site. The range correction algorithm was successful at correcting data that had been subject to incorrect calibration, and did not remove annual trends in mean radiation levels.

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The Distribution of Solar Radiation Throughout Southern Africa

Cited by 22 publications

References 0 publications

Intraseasonal and synoptic climate variability of surface solar radiation over South‐West Indian Ocean: Regional climate modelling

Intraseasonal and synoptic climate variability of surface solar radiation over South‐West Indian Ocean: Regional climate modelling

Ranking South African provinces on the basis of MERRA 2D surface incident shortwave flux

SASRAD: An hourly-timestep solar radiation database for South Africa

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