Clear Sky Global Surface Solar Irradiance Estimation from Bird & Hulstrom Radiometric Model/MODIS Atmospheric Data Combination

Abstract

Estimation of solar irradiance received on the ground is essential in many solar energy applications, particularly those relying on concentrating solar technologies. In this work, we propose a model to estimate the spatial distribution of global Surface Solar Irradiance (SSI) from a Bird & Hulstrom radiometric model/MODIS atmospheric data combination. The theoretical model selected is the radiometric model of Bird & Hulstrom, and it has been modified to take into account the effect of the atmosphere by adding a transmittance function that obeys the Beer-Lambert law, implemented with atmospheric parameters (water vapor, ozone, aerosols, etc.) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) atmospheric products. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is tested on the Algerian territory. The obtained results show that the proposed approach concurs with results provided by the tested Meteosat data-based method while providing SSI maps of better spatial resolution. Moreover, the obtained solar irradiances show a root mean square error of about 140 Wh.m-2 in comparison with the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) radiation extracted from the Solar Radiation Database for the environment (SoDa) server.

Keywords

• global surface solar irradiance
• modis
• bird & hulstrom radiometric model
• transmittance
• atmospheric parameters
• algeria