Academic literature on the topic 'Anisotropic Diffuse Irradiance'

Abstract The spectral direct and diffuse irradiances observed by a radiometer with a horizontal surface detector have been frequently used to study aerosol optical parameters, such as aerosol optical thickness (τaer) and single scattering albedo (ω). Such radiometers more or less lack an ideal cosine response. Generally, either the cosine error of observed diffuse irradiance was corrected by assuming an isotropic distribution of sky radiance or it was neglected in the past studies. This study presents an algorithm to retrieve τaer and ω from direct and diffuse irradiances observed by a radiometer with a nonideal cosine response characteristic by taking into account the cosine errors of observed irradiances in detail. The proposed algorithm considers the anisotropic distribution of sky radiance while correcting the cosine error of observed diffuse irradiance. This algorithm can also be used to calculate the cosine error correction factor of diffuse irradiance. The results show that the aerosol optical parameters and the aerosol direct effect (aerosol radiative forcing and the heating rate) can be heavily affected by the cosine errors of observed direct and diffuse irradiances. The study further shows that assuming the isotropic distribution of sky radiance while correcting the cosine error of observed diffuse irradiance can affect the retrieved ω at small and large solar zenith angles; thus, the estimated aerosol direct effect can be quantitatively affected. Because of the cosine errors, this study found the actual values of diffuse irradiances at different wavelengths were underestimated by around 5%–11%.

Abstract. Clouds cover around two thirds of the Earth’s surface. Most of them are thick enough to influence the radiative budget of our planet: they increase the top of atmosphere (TOA) exitance and they alter the bottom of atmosphere (BOA) direct and diffuse irradiance. However, most radiative transfer models dedicated to Earth surfaces, such as DART (Discrete Anisotropic Radiative Transfer), simulate only cloudless atmospheres. We recently introduced clouds in DART in order to improve the modelling of weather for remote sensing simulations. In this implementation, clouds were characterized with user specified optical properties and vertical distribution. They were modelled as layered one-dimensional medium that coexists with gases and aerosols. The atmospheric radiative transfer modelling relies on the discrete ordinate method already in DART. In addition, an iterative inversion procedure was designed to test this improvement with field measurements during two cloudy days at Lamasquère meteorological station (France). Specifically, it derives time-series of atmosphere parameters from time-series of BOA solar irradiance measurements. These inversed atmospheric parameters were used to simulate total and diffuse BOA irradiance in PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) domain. The comparison of time-series of measured and DART simulated PAR irradiance lead to very encouraging results (mean relative error ∼8% for total irradiance and ∼20% for diffuse irradiance). It stresses the potential of DART to accurately simulate irradiance in cloudy days.

An instrument commonly used to measure diffuse irradiance is the polar-axis shadow band pyranometer. However, the shadow band that is used to prevent the beam energy from entering the pyranometer also obscures part of sky-diffuse irradiance. A correction factor must hence be applied to obtain as accurate as possible the estimation of the true diffuse irradiance. In this article, the development of a new model based on an anisotropic sky-diffuse distribution theory is presented. The proposed model is validated using two databases from different sites with various sky conditions. Drummond’s method, which is based on geometrical calculation, is also examined using the same databases. Comparison of the results obtained through application of the proposed model, with those generated by Drummond’s method shows that, for the case of Bracknell, UK the proposed method gives a root mean square error (RMSE) of 12 W/m2, as compared to Drummond’s figure of 16 W/m2. For the case of Beer Sheva, Israel the proposed model produces an RMSE of 17 W/m2, while Drummond’s procedure results in 23 W/m2. It has been demonstrated herein that the proposed method is not site specific.

Abstract The paper presents calculations of global solar irradiance on inclined surfaces of any orientation in the hourly time step. For computational purposes there were used the data from typical meteorological years (TMY) available in a form of text files on the website of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development. Hourly solar global horizontal irradiance from measurements from the file for Kraków was used as input for five anisotropic models (Hay, Muneer, Reindl, Perez and Perez according to the new PN-EN ISO 52010-1 standard). Direct normal and diffuse horizontal and then global irradiances were calculated. To illustrate the effects of using different models, for the exemplary residential building, monthly solar heat gains and heating demand was determined according to the monthly method of PN-EN ISO 13790. In comparison to the solar data from the TMY, an average decrease in the value of solar gains amounted 37%, what resulted in an increase in the calculated heat demand of the building by 10%. This is very important since this change takes place without any modernisation works.

Different solar position in combination with terrain slope and aspect result in different illumination of inclined surfaces. Therefore, the retrieved satellite data cannot be accurately transformed to the spectral reflectance, which depends only on the land cover. The topographic correction should remove this effect and enable further automatic processing of higher level products. The topographic correction TC@STORM was developed as a module within the SPACE-SI automatic near-real-time image processing chain STORM. It combines physical approach with the standard Minnaert method. The total irradiance is modelled as a three-component irradiance: direct (dependent on incidence angle, sun zenith angle and slope), diffuse from the sky (dependent mainly on sky-view factor), and diffuse reflected from the terrain (dependent on sky-view factor and albedo). For computation of diffuse irradiation from the sky we assume an anisotropic brightness of the sky. We iteratively estimate a linear combination from 10 different models, to provide the best results. Dependent on the data resolution, we mask shades based on radiometric (image) or geometric properties. The method was tested on RapidEye, Landsat 8, and PROBA-V data. Final results of the correction were evaluated and statistically validated based on various topography settings and land cover classes. Images show great improvements in shaded areas.

The annual gain of stationary solar thermal collectors can be increased by non-focusing reflectors. Such concentrators make use of diffuse irradiance. A collector’s incidence angle modifier for diffuse (diffuse-IAM) accounts for this utilization. The diffuse irra-diance varies over the collector hemisphere, which dynamically influences the diffuse-IAM. This is not considered by state-of-the-art collector models. They simply calculate with one constant IAM value for isotropic diffuse irradiance from sky and ground. This work is based on the development of a stationary, double-covered process heat flat-plate collector with a one-sided, segmented booster reflector (RefleC). This reflector approximates one branch of a compound parabolic concentrator (CPC). Optical meas-urement results of the collector components as well as raytracing results of different variants are given. The thermal and optical characterization of test samples up to 190 °C in an outdoor laboratory as well as the validation of the raytracing are discussed. A collector simulation model with varying diffuse-IAM is described. Therein, ground reflected and sky diffuse irradiance are treated separately. Sky diffuse is weighted with an anisotropic IAM, which is re-calculated in every time step. This is realized by gener-ating an anisotropic sky radiance distribution with the model of Brunger and Hooper, and by weighting the irradiance from distinct sky elements with their raytraced beam-IAM values. According to the simulations, the RefleC booster increases the annual out-put of the double-covered flat-plate in Würzburg, Germany, by 87 % at a constant inlet temperature of 120 °C and by 20 % at 40 °C. Variations of the sky diffuse-IAM of up to 25 % during one day are found. A constant, isotropic diffuse-IAM would have under-valued the gains from the booster by 40 % at 40 °C and by 20 % at 120 °C. The results indicate that the gain of all non-focusing solar collectors is undervalued when constant, isotropic diffuse-IAMs calculated from raytracing or steady-state test data are used. Process heat generation with RefleC is demonstrated in a monitored pilot plant at work-ing temperatures of up to 130 °C. The measured annual system utilization ratio is 35 %. Comparing the gains at all inlet temperatures above 80 °C, the booster increases the an-nual output of the double-covered flat-plates by 78 %. Taking all inlet temperatures, the total annual gains of RefleC are 39 % above that of the flat-plates without reflectors. A qualitative comparison of the new simulation model results to the laboratory results and monitoring data shows good agreement. It is shown that the accuracy of existing collector models can be increased with low effort by calculating separate isotropic IAMs for diffuse sky and ground reflected irradiance. The highest relevance of this work is seen for stationary collectors with very distinctive radiation acceptance.