Radiation Map Research Articles

Generation of solar irradiation maps for various applications under Algerian clear-sky conditions

ABSTRACTThe present study deals with drawing solar irradiation maps for Algeria using the r.sun solar clear-sky model. In addition to the mapping of beam and global solar irradiation, the district potentials for concentrating solar power designs, solar photovoltaic technologies and water heater systems are also assessed. The program was developed using C language. The developed program is in the position to calculate the different components of solar irradiation based on the r.sun model. To improve the accuracy of irradiation estimates, we have used one-arc-minute digital elevation model, in order to consider the topography and elevation effects associated with 1.85 km step Linke's turbidity maps as input to the program. The results reveal a high potential of solar irradiation over the entire Algerian territory, especially in the Saharan regions. Further, it was also found that the solar irradiation distribution was influenced by the topography and climatic conditions throughout the country.

Mapping of natural gamma radiation (NGR) dose rate distribution in tin mining areas of Jos Plateau, Nigeria

An extensive study was conducted to measure the natural gamma radiation (NGR) dose rates for the tin mining areas of Jos Plateau with an objective to establish a reference data record on the levels and distribution of natural background gamma radiation. The measurement was carried out using a portable NaI(Tl) scintillation survey meter. The results obtained, varied significantly for different soil types and for geological features of the study area. NGR dose rates values ranged between 40 nGy h−1 measured on Ferric Luvisols–Ferric Luvisols (S13) soil type, underlain by geological formation G7 (sandstone, clay and shale) and 1265 nGy h−1 recorded on, Haplic Acrisols (S27), underlain by geological formation G8 (Younger granites) with overall mean value of 250 nGy h−1. This is by a factor of four higher than the reported world average value of 59 nGy h−1. Mean indoor and outdoor annual effective dose for the public was estimated to be 1.2 and 0.31 mSv/y, respectively. An isodose map for the distribution and exposure rate due to natural sources radiation for the study area was also plotted using ArcGis software. The data here presented can use to prepare a national radiological map for the country.

Two FPGA-Oriented High-Speed Irradiance Virtual Sensors for Photovoltaic Plants

Knowing solar irradiance value allows an optimized management of photovoltaic (PV) power plants in terms of produced energy. Unfortunately, although sensing temperature is easy, the measurement of solar irradiance is expensive. In this paper, two circuit architectures for the estimation of the solar irradiance based on simple measurements are proposed. They are thought to be part of a centralized system implemented on field programmable gate array (FPGA) for sensing and monitoring of solar irradiance in a whole PV plant. The FPGA centralized architecture could allow for a real-time irradiance mapping by exploiting information coming from several low-cost measuring circuits suitably allocated on the PV modules. Validations on real irradiance data collected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory are presented.

Mapping the geographic distribution of the economic viability of photovoltaic load displacement projects in SW USA

While maps of solar irradiance are readily available, they do not represent the economic viability of a solar project in any particular location. This paper provides a financial analysis with different electricity tariffs and then maps the internal rate of return (IRR) of solar load displacement projects. We examine 25 locations in the southwestern USA and show that IRR maps differ substantially from irradiance maps. Our analysis includes 27 scenarios derived from the following combinations: three types of solar installations (concentrated photovoltaic (CPV), south-facing PV and PV oriented so as to optimize IRR); three project start dates (2016, 2018, 2020); and three price projections for grid-connected systems (optimistic, central, pessimistic). The variation of irradiance across these 25 locations is much lower than the variation of IRR. Direct normal irradiance is almost uncorrelated with the IRR from CPV projects, indicating that irradiance alone is a poor predictor of IRR. Tariff differences among the 25 locations, including time of use aspects, play a major role in determining economic viability and IRR varies considerably even within a single city. Orienting PV modules so as to optimize the IRR brings little benefit unless the optimized azimuth is greater than 20° west of south.

Seasonal variation of solar irradiance and sunshine duration in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is a huge area with diverse climatic and topographical features. This diversity in climate is augmented by seasonal weather variations. The study discusses solar irradiance and sunshine duration in terms of seasonal weather systems. Sunshine duration and solar irradiance maps show that the East Mediterranean weather systems (such as Cyprus low) in winter affect the majority of the geographical regions in Saudi Arabia. In spring and autumn, Sudan low becomes more active than Cyprus low, especially in the west and central regions. Sunshine duration in April is 47% compared to 50% in January. Sunshine duration in the southwest region is affected by the rainy and wet summer monsoon which reduces sunshine duration to 33% in summer (July), while it is 43% in winter (January). In addition, the study uses the Angstrom equation to estimate solar irradiance. The absolute relative error between estimated and observed solar irradiance ranges between 2 and 10% in the majority of cases, with a few cases exceeding 13%.

Development of Autonomous Radiation Mapping Robot

This paper discusses the development of a spatial radiation map by an autonomous mobile robot that is equipped with Geiger Muller sensor. Mapping of gamma radiation autonomously using robot as agents will help to prevent harm to human especially when radiation related disaster occur. Hence, we intend to develop a gamma radiation mapping system that reads and process location data of a mobile robot with encoder as well as the radiation data transmitted by the Geiger Muller sensor on the mobile robot. A grid based algorithm was develop to build the radiation map. The system was then tested under several conditions. The results of the spatial distribution map with respect to respective waypoints were discussed at the end of this paper.

A photoactivatable light tracer

The photoinduced interconversion of the two emissive states of a photoactivatable fluorophore permits the quantitative mapping of the electromagnetic radiation propagating through microscaled objects in three dimensions.

Background gamma radiation mapping in forest ecosystem of Bangladesh: A study on the radioactivity distribution in the national reserve forest of Gazipur

Natural and artificial radioactivity appears to be different in different geological regions. Moreover, the radionuclides may migrate to the deeper region of the earth after deposition, and the depth profile of a radionuclide reveals information on the rate of migration. Countrywide background gamma radiation mapping program has been initiated in Bangladesh by dividing the whole country primarily into ~2 km × ~2 km (1' ×1' in Global Positioning System scale) systematic square grids to formulate the radioactivity profile. About 28 km × 30 km area of forest land of Gazipur district called the “BhawalGahr” including the Bhawal National Park was selected for sampling. Soil samples from 0 to 5 cm, 5 to 15, cm and 15 to 30 cm depth were collected from the 27 grid node points of the square grids. A total of 81 samples were collected for the current study. The samples were subjected to elemental and radioactivity analyses. The elements found in the samples were in decreasing order as Fe>K>Ti>Ca>Co>Mn>V>Cr>Ni. The calculated activity concentration of natural radionuclides 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K for surface soil samples (0–5 cm depth) ranged from 44.2 ± 5.7 to 84.5 ± 10.2 Bq/kg, 75.6 ± 8.3 to 126.5 ± 8.3 Bq/kg, and 263.7 ± 92.3 to 606.7 ± 107.9 Bq/kg, respectively and there is no significant variation for other depths. The radiological hazard indices such as radium equivalent activity, radiation external hazard index, absorbed dose rate, and annual effective dose were also estimated from the calculated values of activity concentrations.

Remote Monitoring of Post-eruption Volcano Environment Based-On Wireless Sensor Network (WSN): The Mount Sinabung Case

An accurate information can be useful for authorities to make good policies for preventive and mitigation after volcano eruption disaster. Monitoring of environmental parameters of post-eruption volcano provides an important information for authorities. Such monitoring system can be develop using the Wireless Network Sensor technology. Many application has been developed using the Wireless Sensor Network technology, such as floods early warning system, sun radiation mapping, and watershed monitoring. This paper describes the implementation of a remote environment monitoring system of mount Sinabung post-eruption. The system monitor three environmental parameters: soil condition, water quality and air quality (outdoor). Motes equipped with proper sensors, as components of the monitoring system placed in sample locations. The measured value from the sensors periodically sends to data server using 3G/GPRS communication module. The data can be downloaded by the user for further analysis.The measurement and data analysis results generally indicate that the environmental parameters in the range of normal/standard condition. The sample locations are safe for living and suitable for cultivation, but awareness is strictly required due to the uncertainty of Sinabung status.

PV sites suitability analysis in the Eastern region of Morocco

This Paper discusses the possibility of installation of large-scale Photovoltaic (PV) power plants in the Eastern region of Morocco. For this purpose, a large database of land exclusion with “high spatial resolution” has been built. This dataset contains all the information about roads, power grid, vegetation, hydrology, protected areas, etc. The solar irradiation map was created by interpolating the global horizontal irradiation (GHI) measurements of ten meteorological stations distributed on the surface of this region.Furthermore, a simulation of the electrical production, as well as, the performance of a 15MWp Photovoltaic system –similar to the “Lucainena de las Torres” PV project in Almeria, southern Spain– has been conducted under the climate of Oujda city and compared to those calculated under Almeria’s climate.Results show that the Eastern region of Morocco receives a high amount of solar irradiation, with a maximum of 1930kWh.m−2. It also offers a big capability to host PV farms with a surface of 44,863km2, which represents about 75% of its total surface. Moreover, the electrical generation of a PV plant can be considered as high. For instance, the electricity production of a 15MWp – if installed in Oujda city– is about 23,4GWh/a with an annual Performance Ration of 72,3%.

Evaluating solar irradiance over facades in high building cities, based on LiDAR technology

Arranging a solar irradiation map of the buildings of a city is a valuable tool for sustainable urban planning in regard to non-carbonized criteria in important applications. Such applications may include: selection of materials for the building envelope and insulation according to the irradiation received at each point; monitoring the installation of photovoltaic systems to ensure that they are located in the optimal irradiance zones; or building restoration to improve the energy efficiency and electric generation.The proposed method enables to estimate the incidence of the solar irradiance as well as to visualize the effect it produces in every region of the buildings that compose the urban area of a city. The process includes the use of Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) information along with 5-min horizontal irradiance data. This developed algorithm has been verified through being applied to different building envelopes distributed in different geographical areas. The results demonstrate a satisfied performance which makes that the methodology can be extrapolated to any city where the LiDAR Data and irradiance information are available, permitting an accurate analysis of the solar irradiance over the building envelopes.The algorithm succeeds in obtaining a map of solar radiation captured by the envelope of any urban building that estimates the photovoltaic power generation depending on the geographic location and on the influence of shading caused by adjacent buildings. The provided results show clear evidence of the influence of the shade effect produced by both, the building itself and other nearby buildings. Even if the shading effect is a factor that determines the irradiation gradient, the orientation of the facades has been proven to be the most important parameter in seeking a higher value of irradiation. As a result, south facing walls present wider regions with greater irradiance values, which are of interest for photovoltaic implementation. In addition, monthly analyses have shown that the best-oriented facades have produce their maximum solar power during equinox months, March and September.This method is considered as a useful tool for sustainable urban planning and for building integrated photovoltaics development. Although the entire envelope of a building can be studied, this paper is limited to the analysis of the facades.

High-resolution radiation mapping to investigate FDNPP derived contaminant migration

As of March 2016, five years will have passed since the earthquake and ensuing tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on Japan’s eastern coast, resulting in the explosive release of significant quantities of radioactive material. Over this period, significant time and resource has been expended on both the study of the contamination as well as its remediation from the affected environments. Presented in this work is a high-spatial resolution foot-based radiation mapping study using gamma-spectrometry at a site in the contaminated Iitate Village; conducted at different times, seventeen months apart. The specific site selected for this work was one in which consistent uniform agriculture was observed across its entire extent. From these surveys, obtained from along the main northwest trending line of the fallout plume, it was possible to determine the rate of reduction in the levels of contamination around the site attributable to the natural decay of the radiocesium, remediation efforts or material transport. Results from the work suggest that neither the natural decay of radiocesium nor its downward migration through the soil horizons were responsible for the decline in measured activity levels across the site, with the mobilisation of contaminant species likely adhered to soil particulate and the subsequent fluvial transport responsible for the measurable reduction in activity. This transport of contaminant via fluvial methods has already well studied implications for the input of contaminant material entering the neighbouring Pacific Ocean, as well as the deposition of material along rivers within previously decontaminated areas.

A new modelling approach intended to develop maps of annual solar irradiation and comparative study using satellite data of Algeria

Solar irradiation is the main potential energy source used in various processes. An accurate estimation of solar irradiation becomes a challenge due to the unavailability of weather data in Algeria. Therefore, an operated model can offer an important alternative for calculating the solar irradiation including the minimum of the input data. The present study derives a simple model from a review of our previously published work. It aims to develop a new approach for the estimation of the global irradiation on the horizontal plane only based on the measured sunshine duration. Maps of solar energy are required by many system designs; for this reason, it is mandatory to draw the global solar irradiation maps for Algeria for all types of sky. Algebraic relative errors were used as indicators of the agreement between the experimental and the calculated global irradiation. It has been proved that the highest intensity of the solar irradiation is located around the area of Djanet and Tamanrasset, whereas the less intense area extends from Skikda zone to Annaba, and more exactly in around 7° longitude.

3D unmanned aerial vehicle radiation mapping for assessing contaminant distribution and mobility

Following the events of March 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, significant quantities of radioactive material were released into the local and wider global environment. At five years since the incident, much expense is being currently devoted to the remediation of a large portion of eastern Japan contaminated primarily by radiocesium, yet further significant expenditure will be required over the succeeding decades to complete this clean-up. People displaced from their homes by the incident are now increasingly keen to return, making it more important than ever to provide accurate quantification and representation of any residual radiological contamination. Presented here is the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a laser rangefinder unit to generate a three dimensional point-cloud of an area onto which a radiation contamination map, also obtained concurrently via the unmanned aerial platform, can be rendered. An exemplar site of an un-remediated farm consisting of multiple stepped rice paddy fields with a dedicated irrigation system was used for this work. The results obtained show that heightened radiological contamination exists around the site within the drainage network where material is observed to have collected, having been transported by transient water runoff events. These results obtained in May 2014 suggest that a proportion of the fallout material is highly mobile within the natural environment and is likely to be transported further through the system over the succeeding years.

Safecast: successful citizen-science for radiation measurement and communication after Fukushima

The Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster, which began on 11 March 2011, provided a crucial opportunity to evaluate the state of preparation on the part the powerplant operator (TEPCO), relevant Japanese government agencies, and international oversight bodies, to gather necessary information on radiation risks quickly and to share it with those tasked with emergency response as well as with the general public. The inadequacy of this preparation and the chaotic nature of inter-agency and inter-governmental communication has been well noted in several official reports on the disaster. In response, Safecast, an international, volunteer-based organization devoted to monitoring and openly sharing information on environmental radiation and other pollutants, was initiated on 12 March 2011, one day following the start of the accident. Since then the group has implemented participatory, open-source, citizen-science-centered radiation mapping solutions developed through a process of collaborative open innovation. The information Safecast provided has proven useful to experts, to policy makers, and to the public. This paper briefly describes the methodology and toolsets Safecast has developed and deployed, as well as organizational and social aspects, and summarizes key results obtained to date. In addition, it discusses appropriate criteria for evaluating the success of citizen-science efforts like Safecast, and places it in context with other non-governmental radiation monitoring efforts.

Rectenna Array Equipped on Satellites

Space solar-power satellites may one day transmit large amounts of high-powered microwave beams to Earth from geostationary Earth orbit. New spacecraft can be designed to prosper from this new available source of energy by equipping future spacecraft with a rectenna array or hybrid photovoltaic/rectenna array system. This idea offers prospective benefits, such as extending the mission lifetime of the spacecraft through increasing the life of the power generation function and reducing the power generation units mass. This paper explores the integration of rectenna array and hybrid photovoltaic/rectenna array systems into future spacecraft and compares this method to the conventional photovoltaic array method, considering mission and component life, mass, area, and energy harvesting capabilities. Cost is compared between conventional photovoltaic array and the rectenna array. This paper shows that the integrated hybrid photovoltaic/rectenna array power generation unit seems a viable option in obtaining the aforementioned benefits in the case of a retrodirective beam scenario. A power irradiance map is provided, based on former space solar-power satellites reference systems, that shows what lower orbiting satellites could experience from a microwave power beam delivered to Earth if future geostationary-Earth-orbit space solar-power satellites are operational.

Mapping Monthly Average Global Solar Radiation over Iraq Using GIS and Heliosat Model

The mapping of global solar radiation is important in designing of solar energy system and renewable energy applications, also the global solar radiation estimation and mapping will facilitate engineers and architect purposes and applications. In present paper measured and estimated global solar radiation data was employed. The estimation of global radiation data can give results with acceptable accuracy to establish solar maps of monthly radiation using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. Simple Kriging interpolation was used to derive radiation maps over Iraq. Â Different models were employed, namely Spherical, Circular, and Gaussian. Solar radiation data for the years 1985,1990,1995,2000 and 2005 were used for the production of solar radiation maps over Iraq. On average, Iraq receives (5000) kWh/m2 of global solar radiation in year 2005. The highest global solar radiation is estimated at 6790kWh/m2 in September while the lowest is 1660 kWh/m2in December. Cross validation was used to find the best model by comparing the error criteria, namely MPE, RMS, MSPE, RMSS, and ASE. It was found the Spherical model gives best results according to the cross validation error criteria.Mapping Monthly Average Global Solar Radiation over Iraq Using GIS and Heliosat Model

Mapping of Acoustic Noise and Microwave Radiation

Abstract Passive sensor systems are attractive for monitoring due to the absence of probing emissions. Two passive systems: an acoustic camera, manufactured by Brüel & Kjær (Sound and Vibration Measurement A/S) and a microwave radiometer are considered in the paper. The performance of these systems is carefully analyzed. The obtained results show the limitations of the acoustic camera in acoustic noise source localization caused by specific side lobes of a pattern of its microphone array. A suggestion how to avoid them is given. Application of microwave bistatic radiometer provides information about thermal electromagnetic radiation of objects in 3D spatial coordinates. The generated radiometric maps contain amplitude and phase information, which is suitable for estimation of displacements/vibration. The received results are applicable in nondestructive testing.

Estimation of daily average net radiation and its variation over West Bengal, India using MODIS products

A simple and exclusively satellite-based instantaneous net radiation (INR) and its components have been estimated and it is based on the method proposed. The method has been used to check its suitability over West Bengal, India on clear sky days which is eliminating the need for ground-based observations. The method explicitly recognizes the need for spatially varied input parameters to estimate net radiation using remote sensing information and provides a distributed daily average net radiation map with finer spatial resolution. The satellite-derived radiative flux components were compared with the Eddy Flux Tower measurements located at Bonnie camp within mangrove forest. The bias, root-mean square error and R2 between modelled and measured INR are 52.07, 49.5 W m−2 and 0.74, respectively which are within the acceptable limit. The errors in the downward short wave and long wave as well as upward short-wave and long-wave radiative flux are 13.78, 3.54, 12.41 and 3.54%, respectively. Further, variations of all the radiative flux components were analysed over different eco-systems.

Validation of a global horizontal irradiation assessment from a numerical weather prediction model in the south of Sonora–Mexico

The present work illustrates the methodology followed to generate a high spatial (9 km) and high temporal resolution (10 min) global solar irradiance assessment, based on a numerical weather prediction model, for the south of Sonora region in Mexico and its validation with observational data. At the same time a comparison with an ERA-Interim output data was performed in order to determine if downscaling was necessary. The methodology used starts with obtaining the mean radiation year in order to strongly reduce computational cost. Each day of the mean radiation year defines the initial and boundary conditions of the simulations. The simulation outputs were used to create the monthly and the annual irradiation maps. The grid cells are compared with the corresponding observation and the precision of the model is evaluated. The correlation of the model with the observation data is higher than 0.88. The rRMSE of the model during the fall and winter is observed to be lowered than 6.4%, but the rRMSE increases during the spring and summer. The results show that the downscaling using the configuration selected was correct.