The HelioClim Project: Surface Solar Irradiance Data for Climate Applications

Remote Sensing

Philippe Blanc¹  Benoît Gschwind¹  Mireille Lefèvre¹ 

[1] Center for Energy and Processes, MINES ParisTech, BP 207, 06904 Sophia Antipolis cedex, France;

关键词: solar radiation;    solar irradiance;    solar exposure;    climate;    Africa;    Europe;    Atlantic Ocean;    remote sensing;    long-term analysis;    Meteosat;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs3020343

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Meteosat satellite images are processed to yield values of the incoming surface solar irradiance (SSI), one of the Essential Climate Variables. Two HelioClim databases, HC-1 and HC-3, were constructed covering Europe, Africa and the Atlantic Ocean, and contain daily and monthly means of SSI. The HC-1 database spans from 1985 to 2005; HC‑3 began in 2004 and is updated daily. Their quality and limitations in retrieving monthly means of SSI have been studied by a comparison between eleven stations offering long time-series of measurements. A good agreement was observed for each site: bias was less than 10 W/m² in absolute value (5% in relative value) for HC-3. HC-1 offers a similar quality, though it underestimates the SSI for latitudes greater than 45° and less than −45°. Time-series running from 1985 to date can be created by concatenating the HC-1 and HC-3 values and could help in assessing SSI and its changes.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2011 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.