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Explorador Solar Data

Explorador Solar (http://ernc.dgf.uchile.cl:48080/exploracion/) provides hourly solar radiation data for Chile, obtained from satellite measurements, in the form of time-series (2004-2016 period) and TMY files.

Data covers useful information for PVsyst:

  • Global horizontal irradiance (GHI or GlobHor)
  • Diffuse horizontal irradiance (DiffHor)
  • Direct normal irradiance (DNI or BeamNor)
  • Wind speed
  • Temperature (2m from ground)

In the Explorador Solar irradiance dataset, please note that :

  • the effect of far shadings from mountains at sunrise and sunset is included in the DNI, but not in the DHI, which means that in mountaneous regions an horizon mask must be applied in the project area of PVsyst.
  • the diffuse circumsolar radiation is included in the DHI component (diffuse horizontal), which means that the data is compatible with the use of the Perez-transposition model.

Explorador Solar data are available for free.

ExploradorSolar_Mainpage

Details of the method

(from http://ernc.dgf.uchile.cl:48080/downloads/radiacion.pdf)

Raw satellite data is obtained from GOES-EAST and from TIM/Sorce{:target="blank"} (top of atmosphere sun irradiance). The processing chain is described graphically below. A recalibration of the cloud attenuation model is applied using ground stations measurements. The processing chain includes a specific step where, for each hour, the sun elevation is compared with the horizon band elevation up to 180km of distance from the site: if the sun elevation is lower than the horizon elevation, the _DNI component is forced to zero (no correction of the DHI).

TMY files are processed through the TMY3 algorithm.

ExploradorSolar_processingchain