Estimating Solar Radiation from MODIS Data

Abstract

The assessment of the solar energy resources over large areas and the elaboration of solar radiation maps are nowdays conducted using satellite derived information. Among the existing methodologies, those based on parametric models to firstly estimate the clear-sky solar radiation are usual. The success of that option depends both on the accuracy of the solar radiation algorithm and the satellite derived information and on the relationship between each other.In this work, a new accurate parametric model to estimate global solar radiation under cloudless conditions is presented. Atmospheric precipitable water vapour content is the only experimental input to the model. These values are derived from the MODIS sensor, the major facility instrument on the EOS polar orbiting satellite platforms. The evaluation of the model performance has been carried on using ground measurements obtained in twelve radiometric stations located in the north face of the Sierra Nevada Natural Park in the surroundings of Huéneja (Granada), a town located in the South East of Spain in a mountain zone (Sierra Nevada, Granada, Spain). The radiometric stations record global solar radiation, atmospheric temperature and relative humidity. Since the precipitable water vapour content is also available from the ground stations, a preliminary analysis comparing both experimental data sets is also presented.