Daylight and Solar Irradiance Data Derived From Satellite Observations—The Satellight Project

Abstract

– Satellite data have significantly improved the availability of solar radiation data with high spatial and temporal resolution for design, operation and performance analysis of solar energy systems. The basic concept of an operational method for the estimation of surface solar irradiance which is independent on ground truth data is outlined. The method has been applied in the scope of the European Satellight project for the development of an Internet server providing high quality irradiance and daylight data for Western and Central Europe. The data have been derived from the geostationary satellite Meteosat. The server mainly will assist in the design of energy and daylighting applications in the European solar energy community. It provides both, hourly time series of solar irradiance and specific datasets according to the user's requests.