Abstract
The monthly extraterrestrial solar radiations (ESR) have been simulated separately for all the months of the year. The subtropical location and distribution of mountains and their height determine the spatial distribution and amount of ESR in Pakistan. The mountains, piedmonts, enclosed valleys and plains show distinct diversity of ESR values. The assessment acknowledged that countries like Pakistan with ever increasing demand of energy receive sufficient amount of ESR that could be linked with solar irradiance where development of solar energy has great potential. The simulation was done with the help of ArcGIS based on distributed modeling.
Highlights
Pakistan needs to explore and annex chief available sources of energy for agriculture and urbanization
The simulated results are mapped based on digital elevation model (DEM) processed in ArcGIS
The effort is based on the integration of estimated extraterrestrial solar radiation (ESR) simulated through DEM input into ArcGIS in order to elucidate the patterns and spatial distribution of ESR at monthly scale
Summary
Pakistan needs to explore and annex chief available sources of energy for agriculture and urbanization. It seems very difficult to measure the slopes and other topographic information in the field manually for a large area where we lack database of solar radiation, distributed models could be reasonable tool to map the extraterrestrial solar radiation (ESR) over rugged terrain. Distributed solar radiation models proved to be successfully implied in various scientific avenues including environmental studies, meteorology and climatology [4]-[6]. The differences in landforms height, aspect and orientation of slope play key role in the spatial variation of solar radiation at ground [7]. Various studies have addressed the interaction between solar radiation and rugged complex terrain e.g. Since 1980s, spatial modeling got tremendous scope in geosciences [12]. The simulation of solar irradiance as well as possible sunshine duration (PSD) over difficult terrains paved
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
