Gridded average daily solar exposure metadata
References & Guides
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Dataset |
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| Title | Monthly and annual average daily solar exposure (1990 onward) |
Custodian |
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| Custodian | Bureau of Meteorology |
| Jurisdiction | Australia |
Description |
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| Abstract | Global solar exposure is the total amount of solar energy falling on a horizontal surface.The daily global solar exposure is the total solar energy for a day. Typical values for daily global exposure range from 1 to 35 MJ/m2(megajoules per square metre). For mid-latitudes, the values are usually highest in clear sun conditions during the summer, and lowest during winter or very cloudy days.
See LINEAGE below for more information. |
| Search Word(s) | Gridded, satellite, analyses, climatology, solar, exposure, radiation, meteorology |
| Geographic Extent Names(s) | Australia |
| General Category | Gridded climatological data |
| General Custodian Jurisdiction | Australian Government Australia |
| Geographic Extent Polygon | Not applicable |
| Geographic Bounding Box | See below |
| North Bounding Latitude | -10.025 |
| South Bounding Latitude | -43.975 |
| East Bounding Longitude | 153.975 |
| West Bounding Longitude | 112.025 |
Data Currency |
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| Beginning Date | 1990 |
| Ending Date | Ongoing |
Dataset Status |
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| Progress | Completed |
| Maintenance and Update frequency |
Ongoing |
Access |
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| Stored Data Format | Arc/InfoTM grids - all Australia |
| Available Format Type | ASCII grid-point, Arc/InfoTM grid Interchange (.e00),Shapefiles. |
| Access Constraint | Satellite-derived global solar exposure estimates are based on images from the Geostationary Meteorological Satellite GMS-4, GMS-5, MTSAT-1R (from Nov. 2005) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-9) satellites which are provided with permission of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and the United States National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Any use of products from this imagery requires acknowledgement of the satellites of JMA and NOAA as the original source of the satellite data, and acknowledgement of the Commonwealth of Australia (Bureau of Meteorology) which received and processed the images. Acknowledgement should be in the form: "Solar exposure data derived from satellite imagery processed by the Bureau of Meteorology from the Geostationary Meteorological Satellite series operated by Japan Meteorological Agency and from GOES-9 operated by the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the Japan Meteorological Agency" Please contact us (see details below) for more information. |
Data Quality |
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| Lineage | The Bureau of Meteorologys computer radiation model uses visible images from geostationary meteorological satellites to estimate daily global solar exposures at ground level. At each location for each satellite acquired image, the brightnesses are averaged over each grid cell and used to estimate solar irradiance at the ground. Essentially, the irradiance at the ground can be calculated from the irradiance at the top of the earths atmosphere, the amount absorbed in the atmosphere (dependant on the amount of water vapour present), the amount reflected from the surface (surface albedo) and the amount reflected from clouds (cloud albedo). These instantaneous irradiance values are integrated over the day to give daily insolation (daily radiant exposure) in megajoules per square metre. The daily exposure gridded datasets cover Australia with a resolution of 0.05 degrees in latitude and longitude. The exposure grids are missing for some days. This is because each day is the integration (a sum with interpolation in time) of values produced from hourly satellite images, and the accuracy of the integrated daily value is unacceptably poor if the data from more than two consecutive hours is missing. Missing data are due to:
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| Positional Accuracy | The satellite data on which the analyses were based have an associated resolution and typical accuracy of 0.05 degrees (approximately 5 km) up to and including June 1994 and 0.01 degrees (1.25 km) thereafter, although some individual images have errors of several km. |
| Attribute Accuracy | The accuracy of the models daily estimates of solar exposure is estimated by comparison with measurements from Bureau of Meteorology ground instruments. The source of uncertainties associated with calculations includes:
All these factors with both random and biased components means that the 95% uncertainty for any of the daily solar exposure estimates, regardless of the averaging period (that is, daily, monthly and seasonal), is of the order of 3 MJ/m2. For more information (metadata) please contact us. |
| Logical Consistency | Not applicable |
| Completeness | All of the months in these periods had at least half of their days sampled, with the vast majority missing no more than one day. Details of missing data are available - see Contact Information below. GOES-9 ceased operation in November 2005. |
Contact Information |
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| Contact Organisation | Bureau of Meteorology |
| Contact Position | Climate Data Services |
| Mail Address | PO BOX 1289, Melbourne 3001, Australia |
| Locality | |
| State | Victoria |
| Country | Australia |
| Postcode | 3001 |
| Telephone | (03) 9669 4082 |
| Facsimile | (03) 9669 4515 |
| Electronic Mail | climatedata@bom.gov.au |
Metadata date |
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| Metadata date | 2007 |
| Additional Metadata | Additional information available on request (see contact above). |
Page updated: 3 October 2011
