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CMSAF products Cloud Fraction Coverage and Cloud Type used for solar global irradiance estimation

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Abstract

Two products provided by the climate monitoring satellite application facility (CMSAF) are the instantaneous Cloud Fractional Coverage (iCFC) and the instantaneous Cloud Type (iCTY) products. Previous studies based on the iCFC product show that the simple solar radiation models belonging to the cloudiness index class n CFC = 0.1–1.0 have rRMSE values ranging between 68 and 71 %. The products iCFC and iCTY are used here to develop simple models providing hourly estimates for solar global irradiance. Measurements performed at five weather stations of Romania (South-Eastern Europe) are used. Two three-class characterizations of the state-of-the-sky, based on the iCTY product, are defined. In case of the first new sky state classification, which is roughly related with cloud altitude, the solar radiation models proposed here perform worst for the iCTY class 4–15, with rRMSE values ranging between 46 and 57 %. The spreading error of the simple models is lower than that of the MAGIC model for the iCTY classes 1–4 and 15–19, but larger for iCTY classes 4–15. In case of the second new sky state classification, which takes into account in a weighted manner the chance for the sun to be covered by different types of clouds, the solar radiation models proposed here perform worst for the cloudiness index class n CTY = 0.7–0.1, with rRMSE values ranging between 51 and 66 %. Therefore, the two new sky state classifications based on the iCTY product are useful in increasing the accuracy of solar radiation models.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the reviewers for useful comments and suggestions. This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS—UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0089 and by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology project COST ES1002.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Candida Oancea Institute, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Spl. Independentei 313, 060042, Bucharest, Romania

    Viorel Badescu

  2. Romanian Academy, Calea Victoriei 125, Bucharest, Romania

    Viorel Badescu

  3. Department of Climatology, Meteo Romania (National Meteorological Administration), 97 Sos. Bucuresti-Ploiesti, 013686, Bucharest, Romania

    Alexandru Dumitrescu

Authors
  1. Viorel Badescu
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  2. Alexandru Dumitrescu
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Correspondence to Viorel Badescu.

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Responsible Editor: R. Roebeling.

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Badescu, V., Dumitrescu, A. CMSAF products Cloud Fraction Coverage and Cloud Type used for solar global irradiance estimation. Meteorol Atmos Phys 128, 525–535 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-015-0424-y

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