Potential Solar Radiation Research Articles

Studying the growth characteristics of urban trees using an example from Szeged, Hungary

The spatial expansion of urbanised areas and the steady increase in the urban population, as well as climate change trends, are increasing the need for the development of adequate urban green infrastructure. The social demand for combating climate change is accompanied by the revaluation of green spaces, and in this context woody vegetation plays a key role. In a changing climatic context and under intense anthropogenic stress, the challenge of developing a tree population that is climate-friendly and resistant to disturbance is a major one. In our research, we investigate all growth parameters of the newly planted trees from the start of a street reconstruction involving a complete tree replacement (Gutenberg Street, Szeged). The structural analysis of the revealed not only the growth rate over the 8 years since planting, but also the significant differences between the two sides of the street. In order to find a possible reason for this, we examined (using SAGA GIS software) potential incoming solar radiation of the street, which could explain the significant difference in growth rate. The data collected also provided an opportunity to analyse the allometric relationships. This will partly allow the prediction of the growth rate and can provide baseline data for planning and decision-making processes in the dilemma of whether to retain older trees or plant new stocks.

Studying the growth characteristics of urban trees using an example from Szeged, Hungary

The spatial expansion of urbanised areas and the steady increase in the urban population, as well as climate change trends, are increasing the need for the development of adequate urban green infrastructure. The social demand for combating climate change is accompanied by the revaluation of green spaces, and in this context woody vegetation plays a key role. In a changing climatic context and under intense anthropogenic stress, the challenge of developing a tree population that is climate-friendly and resistant to disturbance is a major one. In our research, we investigate all growth parameters of the newly planted trees from the start of a street reconstruction involving a complete tree replacement (Gutenberg Street, Szeged). The structural analysis of the revealed not only the growth rate over the 8 years since planting, but also the significant differences between the two sides of the street. In order to find a possible reason for this, we examined (using SAGA GIS software) potential incoming solar radiation of the street, which could explain the significant difference in growth rate. The data collected also provided an opportunity to analyse the allometric relationships. This will partly allow the prediction of the growth rate and can provide baseline data for planning and decision-making processes in the dilemma of whether to retain older trees or plant new stocks.

Scientific Substantiation of Increase of Technical and Economic Efficiency of Use of Solar Energy

The article is devoted to finding ways to improve the efficiency of using solar panels. In the mainstream of increasing the economic efficiency of solar stations' operation, methods of reducing the cost of generating electricity based on solar energy are considered. The purpose of the article is to study ways of more efficient use of solar energy and compare the types of installation of photovoltaic converters. The study's main focus is on solar tracking systems, which give the best price/efficiency ratio for solar stations. In particular, the economic feasibility of using a biaxial tracking system for solar panels has been investigated. The advantages and disadvantages of this approach are considered. The energy potential of solar radiation under terrestrial conditions is analyzed. A table of dependences of the angle of motion of the Sun in time for one light day for the conditions of the Sumy region was built. The maximum value of the intensity of solar radiation per year per 1 m2 is calculated. The graph of the average monthly electricity production was built. In the course of the work, an experiment was set up, within the framework of which four options for photoelectric converters' placement were calculated: with automatic guidance to the Sun; inclined type; vertical type; with a fixed angle. It has been established that for the city of Sumy a two-axis orientation system is most effective. According to the results of processing the experimental data, the system with the tracker provides almost 24% more power generation than the stationary installation option (fixed angle) of the photoelectric converter module. Energy organizations and enterprises can use the study results, authorities and other stakeholders in the field of alternative energy.

Space-time high-resolution data of the potential insolation and solar duration for Montenegro

The assessment of the potential use of renewable energy resources requires reliable and precise data inputs for sustainable energy planning on a regional, national and local scale. In this study, we examine high spatial resolution grids of potential insolation and solar duration in order to determine the location of potential solar power plants in Montenegro. Grids with a 25-m spatial resolution of potential solar radiation and duration were produced based on observational records and publicly available high-resolution digital elevation model provided by the European Environment Agency. These results could be further used for the estimation and selection of a specific location for solar panels. With an average annual potential insolation of 1800 kWh/m? and solar duration of over 2000 h per year for most of its territory, Montenegro is one of the European countries with the highest potential for the development, production, and consumption of solar energy.

Pengujian Rasio Kinerja Instalasi Panel Surya Tipe Silikon–Kristal pada Kondisi Cuaca Kota Malang

Indonesia has the potential of global solar radiation reaching 4.5 to 5.5 kWh /m2/day. Due to this fact, the utilization of solar energy using solar panel technology is an alternative to use energy from renewable resources. In the present study, the performance of crystalline silicon solar panels (mono and polycrystalline) under malang city climate (7,944o S ;112,613o E) were experimentally compared. The solar radiation, ambient temperature, current and voltage output, were monitored to determine normalized power output efficiency and the performance ratio of the two different solar panels. The obtained results indicate that the performance of solar panel is influenced by solar radiation, weather condition (cloudy and clear day), wind velocity and type of solar panel installation. Finaly, the normalized power output efficiency of the mono and polycrystalline by 70.79% and 66.33%, respectively. In addition, the performance ratio of mono and polycrystalline by 0.63 and 0.61, respectively. Its showed that, the performance of mon

Geometric modeling of integration of solar energy in high-rise bio-climate buildings

A feature of high-rise buildings is their high energy consumption compared to buildings of lower height. The use of solar energy can reduce the energy load. An urgent task is to develop tools that can justify decision-making on the feasibility of integrating solar systems in the energy-efficient design of high-rise buildings.The article discusses the methods of geometric modeling in determining the effective solar radiation on the surfaces of high-rise bioclimatic buildings. The design of bioclimatic high-rise buildings is based on the principle of their maximum adaptation to the natural environment, which is considered at three levels: macroclimate, mesoclimate and microclimate.In geometric modeling of the integration of solar systems into a high-rise bioclimatic building at the macro level, a primary analysis is carried out regarding the potential of solar radiation in accordance with the geographical location of the high-rise buildings on the planet. Application of the geometric model of the diurnal cone of solar rays Φ, which was proposed by prof. А. Podgorny allows you to analyze changes in the duration of solar exposure for a given day of the year when changing the geographical location of the construction site on the planet.Geometric modeling of heliosystems at the meso and micro levels analyzes the potential for solar radiation of a high-rise building in accordance with its shape, position and shading. In the article, it is proposed that zones of effective solar radiation on the surfaces of tall buildings be determined by geometric modeling of the zones of formation of intrinsic and incident shadows, taking into account the dynamics of sunlight. Zones of constant, variable lighting, constant shading on the surface of a high-rise building determines the location of the rational arrangement of solar systems.

TOPMELT 1.0: a topography-based distribution function approach to snowmelt simulation for hydrological modelling at basin scale

Abstract. Enhanced temperature-index distributed models for snowpack simulation, incorporating air temperature and a term for clear sky potential solar radiation, are increasingly used to simulate the spatial variability of the snow water equivalent. This paper presents a new snowpack model (termed TOPMELT) which integrates an enhanced temperature-index model into the ICHYMOD semi-distributed basin-scale hydrological model by exploiting a statistical representation of the distribution of clear sky potential solar radiation. This is obtained by discretizing the full spatial distribution of clear sky potential solar radiation into a number of radiation classes. The computation required to generate a spatially distributed water equivalent reduces to a single calculation for each radiation class. This turns into a potentially significant advantage when parameter sensitivity and uncertainty estimation procedures are carried out. The radiation index may be also averaged in time over given time periods. Thus, the model resembles a classical temperature-index model when only one radiation class for each elevation band and a temporal aggregation of 1 year is used, whereas it approximates a fully distributed model by increasing the number of the radiation classes and decreasing the temporal aggregation. TOPMELT is integrated within the semi-distributed ICHYMOD model and is applied at an hourly time step over the Aurino Basin (also known as the Ahr River) at San Giorgio (San Giorgio Aurino), a 614 km2 catchment in the Upper Adige River basin (eastern Alps, Italy) to examine the sensitivity of the snowpack and runoff model results to the spatial and temporal aggregation of the radiation fluxes. It is shown that the spatial simulation of the snow water equivalent is strongly affected by the aggregation scales. However, limited degradation of the snow simulations is achieved when using 10 radiation classes and 4 weeks as spatial and temporal aggregation scales respectively. Results highlight that the effects of space–time aggregation of the solar radiation patterns on the runoff response are scale dependent. They are minimal at the scale of the whole Aurino Basin, while considerable impact is seen at a basin scale of 5 km2.

Classification of the Tatra Mountain lakes in terms of the duration of their ice cover (Poland and Slovakia)

This paper presents the results of a classification of the Tatra lakes based on the duration of their ice cover, altitude, volume, and potential incoming solar radiation (PISR). It is embedded in the context of the impact of current climate change on the mountain environment. A digital elevation model, morphometric data, satellite imagery from the winter seasons of 2015-2017 and the Wrocław taxonomy method were used in the study. It was found that the order of freezing and thawing of the lakes investigated may change from year to year. The relationship between ice cover duration and altitude is clearly weakened by variations in lake volumes, with insolation having a noticeably lesser effect. Determining the duration of ice cover of the lakes over several seasons facilitates identifying the similarities and dissimilarities between them. Five groups of lakes displaying similar characteristics were identified as well as 2 groups of lakes with highly individual characteristics. Based on the data obtained, it can be concluded that the duration of ice cover on the Tatra lakes has been shortening noticeably over the last 100 years. Small high-altitude lakes seem to be most vulnerable to climate change.

A prediction models for estimating global solar radiation and evaluation meteorological effect on solar radiation potential under several weather conditions at the surface of Adrar environment

Under weather conditions, the relationship between solar radiation and climatology of desert region is identified. Six models of global solar radiation are selected and studied during period of four years. This paper is based on solar radiation measurements in Research Unit in Renewable Energy in Saharan Medium (URER-MS) at various weather conditions. The Studies have shown that solar radiation can be calculated in terms of ambient temperature. Consequently, from temperature measurements, we know how much solar energy is received per unit area to estimate the solar radiation available at a given point on the Earth's surface. In addition, it was concluded that the impact of dust depending on varies quality of the soil, and the obtained results show that the model (M4) presents the best performance with an R2 value of 0.87.

Deployment of a stand‐alone hybrid renewable energy system in coastal areas as a reliable energy source

AbstractSolar and wind can be considered as sustainable environmentally friendly and omnipresent renewable energy sources for generating a part of required electrical energy for inhabitants of the remote areas in different countries. Accordingly, this study investigates the techno‐economic evaluation for two‐hybrid renewable energy systems for Bandar Dayyer. The findings of this study shows that using the HOMER software, the total amount of electricity production by these systems are equal to 470,176 kW, of which 22,409 kW is provided by PV‐generic system and 447,767 kW is supplied by PV‐diesel‐generic system. It should be mentioned that this area has an appropriate potential of wind speed and solar radiation; therefore, the area can be suitable for investing on a hybrid renewable energy site.

Studi Eksperimental Pengaruh Kemiringan Sudut Terhadap Alat Destilasi Air Laut Memanfaatkan Energi Matahari

Indonesia is one country that is in a tropical climate that promises sunshine of all time. The abundant potential of solar radiation can be utilized in a distillation device to convert sea water into fresh water. This research aims to build a distillation device as a provider of clean water. Test equipment is designed and built with black fiber material with a size of 1.25 m x 0.8 m with a 3 mm thick glass cover with a capacity of 3600 ml of sea water. To find out the effectiveness of the distillation apparatus, it was tested with three variations of slope angles namely 30 0 , 40 0 , and 50 0 . Tests carried out in the city of Medan. The testing method is done by evaporating seawater, evaporation occurs because of the absorption of heat from the sun through a solar collector's plate. The result obtained an effective slope angle is 30 0 with a production of 650 ml of fresh water. In addition to fresh water production, it is also known that the maximum sea water temperature is 73 0 C at 12:20 WIB, the radiation heat transfer rate is 92.86 Watt

Controlling factors of microclimate in blocky surface layers of two nearby relict rock glaciers (Niedere Tauern Range, Austria)

ABSTRACTCoarse blocky material is known to have a ground cooling effect compared to other types of unconsolidated surface material, which may have an influence on spatial distribution and conservation of permafrost. In the light of climate warming, this effect may retard permafrost degradation or exert prolonged ground cooling in general. To contribute to a better understanding of this ground cooling effect and potential influencing factors, the thermal regime of blocky surface layers of two comparable nearby relict rock glaciers with opposing aspects was investigated. Air, surface and shallow ground temperature at 1 m depth were continuously measured over a four-year period at nine locations distributed over two rock glaciers. The blocky surface layer of the SW-exposed rock glacier exhibits lower and more heterogeneous temperatures than the NE-oriented despite a higher potential solar radiation. The data suggest a thinner or more discontinuous seasonal snow cover at the SW-exposed rock glacier, causing a more efficient winter cooling. The importance of air flow driven heat transfer as a source of cooling is supported by the data. Results illustrate thermal heterogeneities within blocky layers and the importance of the seasonal snow cover pattern in addition to topography and microclimatic variability in high relief terrain is hypothesized.

TERRAIN MORPHOLOGY AS FACTOR OF LOCAL TEMPERATURES DISTRIBUTION IN UKRAINIAN CARPATHIANS

Ukrainian Carpathians like other mountainous areas are susceptible to the modern climate changes manifested mainly in accelerated warming. There are several main mechanisms of the orographic effects on temperature distribution, operating on different scales. The well-known and universally observed cooling with elevation is still often used as an over-simplified model of terrain relation to temperature regime, yet there are other significant orographic effects connected with the position of terrain features respective to incoming solar radiation angle and the large-scale movements of air masses. In Ukrainian Carpathians these effects are manifested mainly in more mild and less continental conditions on south-western macroslope that is also warmer due to larger solar radiation intake. Another important factor of temperature distribution is the formation of near-ground temperature inversions that often emerge in narrow valleys and inter-mountain troughs. The mapping of land surface temperatures can be effectively achieved by applying spatial imagery with thermal infrared bands; in our case, Landsat 8 images allowed to obtain detailed maps of temperature distribution in Bystrytsia river basin for three different seasons of the year. An analysis has been performed of relationships between temperatures and a set of morphometric parameters, by means of raster package and appropriate functions of R software environment. Rather strong negative relationship between elevation and temperature has been revealed in all the three cases. Direct relationship between slope and temperature was not confirmed, while potential incoming solar radiation values for the date and time of the imagery appeared to have a moderate effect on temperature, its effect varying from season to season. Key words: mountain climate; Carpathians; terrain morphology; temperature gradient; spatial analysis.

Biocrust landscape‐scale spatial distribution is strongly controlled by terrain attributes: Topographic thresholds for colonization in a semiarid badland system

AbstractBiological soil crust, or biocrust communities, are the dominating life form in many extreme habitats, such as arid and semiarid badlands, where water scarcity and highly erodible substrates limit vegetation cover. While climate, soil and biotic factors have been described as environmental filters influencing biocrust distribution in such biomes, little is known about the effect of terrain attributes on creating specific microhabitats that promote or restrict biocrust colonization. This study aimed to identify the main terrain attributes controlling biocrust distribution in the driest badland system in Europe, the Tabernas Badlands (SE Spain). To do this, we analysed the influence of different terrain attributes related to landscape stability and microclimate formation on the spatial distribution of lichen and cyanobacteria, using field measurements and topographical information from a LiDAR survey. Our results showed that the spatial distribution of cyanobacteria‐dominated biocrusts, which are physiologically and morphologically adapted to extreme drought and high UVA radiation, was mostly associated with areas of high potential incoming solar radiation. The exception was bare south‐aspect hillslopes with very high sediment transport potential, where bare physically crusted soils were the dominant ground cover. Lichen‐dominated biocrusts, in contrast, colonized near the top of north‐aspect hillslopes, characterized by low potential incoming solar radiation and potential evapotranspiration, and their cover decreased downstream, as conditions became good enough for vascular plants. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Impacts of climate, soil and biotic interactions on the interplay of the different facets of alpine plant diversity

Disentangling the processes that drive plant community assembly is critical for understanding the patterns of plant diversity. We studied how different abiotic and biotic factors shape the interplay between the facets of alpine plant diversity, functional (FD), phylogenetic (PD) and taxonomic diversity (TD), in three different mountain ranges with contrasting evolutionary histories and climate conditions (Pyrenees and Mediterranean-type mountains in central Spain and Chilean Andes). We hypothesized that the causal links vary in strength and sign across regions. We used species inventories, functional trait data, and a phylogeny from 84 plant communities spread throughout three high-mountain alpine grasslands. Structural equation models were used to test our causal hypotheses on the relationships observed between the three diversity facets, and the abiotic (elevation, potential solar radiation and soil total nitrogen) and biotic factors (C-score). Despite our causal model presented a high variability in each mountain range, TD always decreased with increasing elevation (sum of direct and indirect effects). We also found some patterns suggesting that assembly processes could be climatically/biogeographically structured such as the negative relationship between FD and elevation found in Mediterranean mountains and the negative relationship between FD and TD found in both Spanish mountain ranges (independently of their different climates). A remarkable finding of this study is that ecological factors such as soil total nitrogen and elevation indirectly alter the relationships between the diversity facets. Our results suggest that diversity facets are simultaneously affected by different ecological and biogeographical/evolutionary processes, resulting in some general trends but also in parallel idiosyncratic patterns. Our findings highlight that although FD stand out by its explanatory power of community processes, TD and PD provide a complementary and necessary view that should not be disregarded in the attempt to globally explain community assembly processes.

A Customized Decision Support System for Renewable Energy Application by Housing Association

One of the major problems in socio-environmental systems is the growing depletion of non-renewable resources and environmental degradation, resulting from inadequate environmental management and planning. Deepening environmental problems have forced countries to create management instruments that will help repair damage and support environmental protection efforts. The aim of this research is to develop a customized decision support system for the management of renewable energy based on the existing Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The proposed tool enables assessing the potential of solar energy production at the local scale, analyzing each rooftop. Due to the scale of the analyzed area and the details of the assessment, the tool is customized to the needs of housing associations. The system combines an existing GIS tool for calculating the solar radiation potential of rooftops (SOLIS) together with Tableau software that was used to aggregate and analyze data. In order to present the applicability of the developed tool, visualizations were prepared based on housing buildings managed by the “Biskupin” Housing Association in Wrocław (Poland) which is responsible for the management of 3415 residential premises. The created system based on spatial and environmental data will help to decide how to manage the available resources and the environment at the local scale while reducing the pressure on the environment. The tool allows for the aggregation, filtering and presentation of spatial data for the entire area of a housing association, as well as for a single building.

Estimating Shortwave Clear‐Sky Fluxes From Hourly Global Radiation Records by Quantile Regression

AbstractEstimates of radiative fluxes under cloud‐free conditions (“clear‐sky”) are required in many fields, from climatic analyses of solar transmission to estimates of solar energy potential for electricity generation. Ideally, these fluxes can be obtained directly from measurements of solar fluxes at the surface. However, common standard methods to identify clear‐sky conditions require observations of both the total and the diffuse radiative fluxes at very high temporal resolution of minutes, which restricts these methods to a few, well‐equipped sites. Here we propose a simple method to estimate clear‐sky fluxes only from typically available global radiation measurements (Rsd) at (half‐)hourly resolution. Plotting a monthly sample of observed Rsd against the corresponding incoming solar radiation at the top of atmosphere (potential solar radiation) reveals a typical triangle shape with clear‐sky conditions forming a distinct, linear slope in the upper range of observations. This upper slope can be understood as the fractional transmission of solar radiation representative for cloud‐free conditions of the sample period. We estimate this upper slope through quantile regression. We employ data of 42 stations of the worldwide Baseline Surface Radiation Network to compare our monthly estimates with the standard clear‐sky identification method developed by Long and Ackerman (2000, https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900077). We find very good agreement of the derived fractional solar transmission (R2 = 0.73) across sites. These results thus provide confidence in applying the proposed method to the larger set of global radiation measurements to obtain further observational constraints on clear‐sky fluxes and cloud radiative effects.

A structural equation model linking past and present plant diversity in Alaska: a framework for evaluating future change

AbstractRecent findings of peak plant species diversity occurring in alpine tundra in Alaska may reflect the filtering of the regional species pool during Pleistocene Epoch cold periods. Specifically, herbaceous plant groups and those with far northern geographic distributions centered in Beringia may have persisted coincident with repeated diminution of tall‐statured and southern continental plant groups during cold intervals, thus potentially structuring current diversity patterns in relation to elevation. Numerous biotic and abiotic drivers of plant species distributions vary with elevation, raising questions concerning which of these drivers are responsible for these surprising diversity patterns. We used structural equation modeling to investigate relationships among a suite of biotic and abiotic covariates and the richness of species groups based on growth form (GF) and biogeographic affinity across interior Alaska. Our results confirm the primary importance of microclimate in controlling the distribution, abundance, and richness of woody plants, which increased in warm, south‐exposed plots. In contrast, the suite of other site factors had considerably stronger combined direct influences on richness of forbs, graminoids, and dwarf shrubs as compared to microclimate. Thus, species groups with negative richness responses to increasing temperature and potential solar radiation may have a competitive disadvantage to woody species, suggesting competitive displacement as one mechanism for these patterns. Our findings reveal that conditions associated with the high plant diversity (including cooler air temperatures, ground disturbance, and weakly acidic soil pH) are spatially restricted as compared to widespread conditions associated with low species diversity (warm lowlands with acidic soil reaction). Our results confirm a strong correspondence between localized richness patterns and variation in the overall fractions of the GF and biogeographic groups within the regional species pool. Our work suggests important links between current and historical drivers of plant diversity that help explain the apparent contradictions suggested by the relatively limited spatial extent of species‐rich habitats in Alaska. By elucidating the relationships among biotic and abiotic site characteristics and between these characteristics and richness, our findings provide a useful framework within which to evaluate possible changes to vegetation structure and species richness patterns caused by rapid warming.

Potential Solar Radiation as a Driver for Bark Beetle Infestation on a Landscape Scale

In recent decades, Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.) forests of the High Tatra Mountains have suffered unprecedented tree mortality caused by European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus L.). Analysis of the spatiotemporal pattern of bark beetle outbreaks across the landscape in consecutive years can provide new insights into the population dynamics of tree-killing insects. A bark beetle outbreak occurred in the High Tatra Mountains after a storm damaged more than 10,000 ha of forests in 2004. We combined yearly Landsat-derived bark beetle infestation spots from 2006 to 2014 and meteorological data to identify the susceptibility of forest stands to beetle infestation. We found that digital elevation model (DEM)-derived potential radiation loads predicted beetle infestation, especially in the peak phase of beetle epidemic. Moreover, spots attacked at the beginning of our study period had higher values of received solar radiation than spots at the end of the study period, indicating that bark beetles prefer sites with higher insolation during outbreak. We conclude that solar radiation, easily determined from the DEM, better identified beetle infestations than commonly used meteorological variables. We recommend including potential solar radiation in beetle infestation prediction models.

A Semi-empirical Approach Based on Genetic Programming for the Study of Biophysical Controls on Diameter-Growth of Fagus orientalis in Northern Iran

This paper examines the possible ecological controls on the diameter increment of oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) in a high altitude forest in northern Iran. The main objectives of the study are computer-generated abiotic surfaces and associated plot estimates of (i) growing-season-cumulated potential solar radiation, (ii) seasonal air temperature, (iii) topographic wetness index in representing soil water distribution, and (iv) wind velocity generated from the simulation of fluid-flow dynamics in complex terrain. Plot estimates of the tree growth are based on averaged plot measurements of diameter at breast height increment during a growing period of nine years (2003–2012). Biotic variables related to the tree diameter increment involve averaged 2003 tree diameter and basal area measured in individual forest plots. In the modelling data (144 plots), the assemblage of modelled and observed site variables explained 75% of the variance in plot-level diameter increment. In the validation data (32 plots), the degree of explained variance was 77%. Mean tree diameter at breast height showed the strongest correlation with diameter increment, explaining 32% of the variation between-plot, followed by the configuration of topography and re-distribution of surface water (19.5%) and plot basal area (16.9%). On average, localised estimates of solar radiation and wind velocity potentially contribute to about 20% of the control on plot-level mean increment in oriental beech of the area. The results of the genetic programming showed that controlling the stand basal area and tree size by thinning and/or selective harvesting can have a favourable impact on the future distribution of mean diameter in oriental beech.