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DOE OSTI · 2499740

Measured Long-Term Solar Irradiance for Climate Studies

Habte, Aron·Sengupta, Manajit (ORCID:0000000156224503)·Andreas, Afshin (ORCID:0000000261892829)·Jaker, Shawn·Yang, Jaemo·Reda, Ibrahim·Xie, Yu
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Abstract

Solar radiation is primarily measured using high-quality radiometers (e.g., pyranometers and pyrheliometers). These instruments need to be calibrated regularly (every two years at a minimum). They are also susceptible to various sources of uncertainties. Therefore, rigorous data quality assessment is required to obtain high-confidence data from these radiometers. This is especially true when the data is used to understand climatic trends and/or extreme weather events. In this study, we attempted to create a continuous and reliable dataset by correcting the underlying data which we believe contains bias due to reference pyranometers swap procedures. These biases can be significant which can be up to two percentage points thereby influencing the interpretation of climate changes and/or extreme events. This study elaborates on the biases and methods to correct those biases.

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data integrityinstrumentsmarket researchmeteorologyphotovoltaic systemsradiometersreliabilitySOLAR ENERGYsolar irradiancesolar radiationuncertainty

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Habte, Aron, Sengupta, Manajit (ORCID:0000000156224503), Andreas, Afshin (ORCID:0000000261892829), Jaker, Shawn, Yang, Jaemo, Reda, Ibrahim, Xie, Yu. 2024-11-15. Measured Long-Term Solar Irradiance for Climate Studies. https://doi.org/10.1109/pvsc57443.2024.10748776

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DOE OSTI2023

Towards Integrating Data Quality Assessments and Radiometer Uncertainty for Determining the Expanded Uncertainty of Three-Component Solar Radiation Measurements

Accurate solar irradiance data are fundamental for determining the design and performance characteristics of photovoltaic systems. The uncertainty of solar irradiance measurements depends on many factors including radiometer design, calibration, installation, maintenance, and operational environment. The key contributors to this uncertainty can be classified as the measurement uncertainty of a particular radiometer and the operational uncertainty determined for the time of measurement. Radiometer measurement uncertainty estimates (U R ) can be based on well-established methods used as part of the radiometer calibration process. Estimates of operational uncertainties (U o ) require consideration of additional site-specific factors that affect data quality. A method is needed for establishing the accuracy of solar irradiance data by integrating an existing data quality process and measurement uncertainty estimates for specific radiometers. An algorithm has been developed to integrate data quality analyses and measurement uncertainty estimates for three-component solar irradiance data: global horizontal (total hemispheric) irradiance, direct normal (beam) irradiance, and diffuse horizontal (sky) irradiance collected at one- to 60-minute intervals. The algorithm has been tested using one-minute irradiance measurements. The goal of the project is to distribute a user-friendly software package based on the new algorithm.

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