The National Solar Radiation Database Version 1.0 (1961-1990) from the National

Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on CD-ROM

BRIEF

The National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB) was produced by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), formerly the Solar Energy Research Institute, under the Department of Energy's (DOE) Resource Assessment Program. All of the meteorological data were provided by the NOAA National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). The majority of the measured solar radiation data were collected by NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) and supplied to NREL by NCDC. Solar radiation data were also obtained from the University of Oregon; WEST Associates (a consortium of southwestern utilities); University of New York at Albany; Trinity University, Texas; Georgia Institute of Technology; Bethune-Cookman College, Florida; and Savannah State College, Georgia. The NSRDB is the successor to the SOLMET/ERSATZ data base (SOLMET, Vol. 1 1978), covering a longer and more recent time period, using improved measurements and an improved model for estimating solar radiation, and providing a variety of user-friendly products. Although measured solar radiation data constitute less than 7% of the NSRDB, they provided the benchmark for model estimates of solar radiation. The METSAT model used for producing approximately 93% of the solar radiation data in the NSRDB was developed by the NREL using the relatively good quality solar radiation data collected by the NWS from 1977-1980. These measured and modeled solar radiation data were combined with meteorological data (used by the solar energy industry to evaluate the performance of its systems) to form the NSRDB.

The NSRDB is a serially complete collection of hourly values of the three most common measurements of solar radiation (global horizontal, direct normal, and diffuse horizontal) over a period of time adequate to establish means and extremes, and at a sufficient number of locations to represent regional solar radiation climates. In addition, the NSRDB contains extraterrestrial radiation (ETR) and direct normal ETR, total skycover, opaque skycover, dry-bulb temperature, dew-point temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind direction and speed, horizontal visibility, ceiling height, present weather, total precipitable water, aerosol optical depth, snow depth, and number of days since last snowfall. National and international meteorological practices (WMO 1967) call for the use of a 30-year period of record to establish normals, means, and extremes for meteorological variables. Because NOAA updates normals, means, and extremes for the U.S. each decade, the period January 1961 through December 1990 was used for the NSRDB. Standard International (SI) units are used for all elements in the data base except atmospheric pressure (millibars).

All data are referenced to local standard time. The solar radiation elements are the radiant energy integrated over the hour preceding the designated time. Meteorological elements are the values observed at the designated time. The NSRDB contains 56 Primary and 183 Secondary stations, covering the U.S. including Alaska and Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Primary stations contain measured solar radiation data for at least a portion of the 30-year record, while Secondary stations contain only modeled data.

The NSRDB replaces the SOLMET/ERSATZ data base (SOLMET Vol. 1 1978 and Vol. 2 1979). A number of investigators have examined data from the SOLMET data base as well as the models used in its preparation. Randall and Bird (1989) present a good summary of the results of these investigations. They found a great deal of variation in the apparent quality of the SOLMET data. For example, differences in the values for mean monthly global horizontal radiation from the SOLMET data base, which covers 1952-1975 and monthly means from measurements taken from 1977-1980 were as great as 20%. Differences between SOLMET and 1977-1980 values for mean monthly direct normal radiation were as great as 50%. This was probably due in part to the fact that the SOLMET data base contained only modeled estimates of direct normal radiation. The large differences found between monthly mean values in the SOLMET data base and monthly mean values of data collected by the NWS stations from 1977-1980 provided the primary motivation for upgrading the data base. The need to update the data base was apparent because the last data in the SOLMET data base were collected in 1975. Thus, the DOE in cooperation with the NCDC undertook this effort to update the solar radiation data for the U.S. and to develop statistics consistent with standard climatic practices.

The products available from the NSRDB Version 1.0 include 1) serial hourly data in 2 formats, 2) hourly, daily, and quality statistics for solar radiation elements, 3) daily statistics for meteorological elements, and 4) persistence statistics for daily total solar radiation energy. The serial complete hourly data are available in the NSRDB synoptic and TD-3282 formats. Statistical summaries based on the hourly data for the solar radiation data include average and standard deviation of the daily total solar energy, along with 30-year averages and standard deviations of monthly and annual means for 1961-1990. For the meteorological elements only monthly, annual and 30-year averages were computed. A solar radiation persistence product was created for each station-month by calculating the number of times the daily solar radiation energy persisted above or below set thresholds for periods from 1-15 days. These calculations were performed for the entire 30-year period 1961-1990.

ATTRIBUTES

Entry_ID: NCDC_NSRDB (MD Identifier: 619)
 
Temporal Coverage:
     From: 1961-01-01                 TO: 1990-12-31 
 
Geographic Coverage:
     Southwest Extent: 17N,145E    Northeast Extent:  72N,65W
 
Source:
     GROUND STATIONS
 
Storage Media:
     CD-ROM
     Diskette
     Magnetic Tape
 
Campaign/Project:
     DOERAP>Department of Energy Resource Assessment Program
 
Discipline, Subdiscipline:
     EARTH SCIENCE                   > ATMOSPHERE
     EARTH SCIENCE                   > LAND
 
Location Keyword:
     EQUATORIAL
     MID-LATITUDE
     NORTH AMERICA
     PACIFIC OCEAN
     POLAR
 
Parameter Group, Parameter:
     ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION         > AEROSOLS
     ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION         > CLOUDS
     ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION         > HUMIDITY
     ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS            > ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE
     ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS            > CLOUD TYPES
     ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS            > HUMIDITY
     ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS            > PRESSURE
     ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS            > SOLAR RADIATION
     ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS            > VISIBILITY
     ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS            > WINDS
     GEOGRAPHY AND LAND COVER        > SNOW
 
General Keywords:
     CD-ROM
     CEILING HEIGHTS
     CLIMATOLOGY
     DAILY DATA
     DEW POINT TEMPERATURES
     HOURLY DATA
     NSRDB
     RADIATION
     SKYCOVER
     SNOWFALL
     STATISTICS
     SURFACE
     TD-3282
     TOTAL PRECIPITABLE WATER
     WEATHER OBSERVATIONS
 
Revision Date: 1993-03-30
 
Quality Statement:
 

Quality flags are attached to each hourly solar radiation and meteorological
element. These flags provide information on the source and uncertainty of a
data element, allowing each user to evaluate its usefulness.

Statistics on the quality of the solar radiation data were determined by
calculating the percentage of the hourly values to which each source and
uncertainty flag was assigned. These percentages were calculated for each
station-year and for the 30-year period of record and are available as a
separate product.

DATACENTER

Archive: 
   NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC>National Climatic Data Center, NOAA
   Data Set ID: NSRDB CDROM 
                TD-3282 
 
   Contact: ROSS, THOMAS 
            NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC
            Federal Building
            37 Battery Park Avenue
            Asheville, NC 28801-2733
            USA
 
            Electronic Mail: INTERNET> TROSS@NCDC.NOAA.GOV
 
            Phone: (704) 271-4994

PERSONNEL

Entry Author: SCIALDONE, JOHN N.
              Hughes STX
              7701 Greenbelt Road, Suite 400
              Greenbelt, MD  20770
              USA
 
              Electronic Mail: INTERNET> SCIALDONE@NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV
                               NSI/DECnet> NCF::SCIALDONE
 
              Phone: (301) 441-4214
 
 
Information in this entry provided by NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC

REFERENCE


National Solar Radiation Database (1961-1990) User's Manual, NREL, Volume 1,
September 1992.

Randall, C.M., and Bird R., (1989). Insolation Models and Algorithms. In R.L.
Hulstrom (Ed.), Solar Resources. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Chap. 3, pp.
61-144.

SOLMET, Vol. 1 (1978), User's Manual--Hourly Solar Radiation--Surface
Meteorological Observations, TD-9724, Asheville, NC: National Climatic Data
Center.

SOLMET, Vol. 2 (1979), Final Report--Hourly Solar Radiation--Surface
Meteorological Observations, TD-9724, Asheville, NC: National Climatic Data
Center.

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