Abstract

Smoke aerosol plumes generated during the biomass burning season in Brazil suffer long-range transport, resulting in large aerosol optical depths over an extensive domain. As a consequence, downward surface solar irradiance, and in particular the direct component, can be significantly reduced. Accurate solar energy assessments considering the radiative contribution of biomass burning aerosols are required to support Brazil’s solar power sector. This work presents the 2nd generation of the radiative transfer model BRASIL-SR, developed to improve the aerosol representation and reduce the uncertainties in surface solar irradiance estimates in cloudless hazy conditions and clean conditions. Two numerical experiments allowed to assess the model’s skill using observational or regional MERRA-2 reanalysis AOD data in a region frequently affected by smoke. Four ground measurement sites provided data for the model output validation. Results for DNI obtained using δ-Eddington scaling and without scaling are compared, with the latter presenting the best skill in all sites and for both experiments. An increase in the relative error of DNI results obtained with δ-Eddington optical depth scaling as AOD increases is evidenced. For DNI, MBD deviations ranged from −2.3 to −0.5%, RMSD between 2.3 and 4.7% and OVER between 0 and 5.3% when using in-situ AOD data. Overall, our results indicate a good skill of BRASIL-SR for the estimation of both GHI and DNI.

Highlights

  • Brazil has a vast solar energy resource [1,2,3] and has experienced a boost in photovoltaic deployment in recent years due to government incentives and technological advances [4,5]

  • The large loads of aerosols typically injected into the atmosphere during the dry season in Brazil can result in high aerosol optical depths (AOD)

  • The current study focuses on improving the representation of the impact of biomass burning aerosols on the downward surface solar irradiance provided by the model BRASIL-SR

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Summary

Introduction

Brazil has a vast solar energy resource [1,2,3] and has experienced a boost in photovoltaic deployment in recent years due to government incentives and technological advances [4,5]. Concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies have shown a noteworthy potential for Brazil in scenarios of climate change mitigation ([10,11,12,13]), especially as a complementary heat supply for industrial processes or hybrid power generation [14,15] It should be noted, that some potential areas for CSP development, like the Central-West and the Southeast regions, are often affected by biomass burning haze during the dry season as a result of long-range transport [16,17,18,19]. That was not able to adequately represent the actual atmospheric load of aerosol from biomass burning, often concentrated in higher atmospheric levels [31,32] In such conditions, the model systematically overestimated the clear-sky downward solar irradiance at the surface, especially the DNI, increasing uncertainties during the dry season. Seciton 5 includes the discussion of results, conclusions and future research

BRASIL-SR Model
Experimental Data and Methods
Observational Data
BRASIL-SR Input Data and Configuration
Model Validation
Selection of Clear-Sky Periods
Global Horizontal Irradiation
Direct Normal Irradiation
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