Monitoring cumulus clouds by using global horizontal irradiance data

Abstract

A previously proposed method for the detection of cumulus clouds by using time series of global horizontal irradiance from a pyranometer is developed. A characteristic feature of this method is the acceptance of short 21-minute moving analysis windows as stationary. This approach makes it possible not to construct a clear sky model for transforming a non-stationary daily time series of global horizontal irradiance to stationary time series.