SoDa is developing forecasts of HelioClim-3 v5 (using McClear clear-sky model) up to d+1 (tomorrow). These forecasts use CAMS and GFS meteorogical models.

This release introduces hC3v5 for the current day: HelioClim-3 v5 Persistence Forecast.

Please contact support-sales-(at)-soda-is.com to register to our service of HC3v5 Irradiation Maps in Real Time.

Photosynthetically Active Radiation from HC3v5

We are pleased to inform you that we expand our panel of services in the delivery of spectral radiation values computed from HC3.

A new service to retrieve Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) is available via the Spectral-from-HC3 Web interface.

GFS web service on SoDa web site interpolates the native 3-hours GFS data to time steps <= 1 hour.

We fixed a bug in this interpolation: GFS rain, snow and irradiation were shifted by 1.5 hour.

MERRA-2 data are shifted by 0.5 hour for time steps <= 1 h

MERRA-2 web service on SoDa web site interpolates the native 1-hour MERRA-2 data to time steps <= 1 hour.

GFS web service on SoDa web site interpolates the native 3-hours GFS irradiation to time steps <= 1 hour.

We improved this interpolation: GFS irradiation is now "smoother".

GFS web service on SoDa web site can interpolate the native 3-hours GFS data to time steps <= 1 hour.

We fixed a bug in this interpolation: in rare cases, GFS irradiation was > 0 during night.

When www.soda-pro.com was down, McClear and CAMS Radiation WPS were down as well on the Transvalor mirror server (www.tsv.soda-pro.com).

This bug is now fixed and the two CAMS services will be accessible without interruption.

A classic error when using CAMS Radiation and McClear WPS is to forget to encode the "@" character.

We detect now this error and return a proper error message.

Since 2018-06-20, CAMS Radiation Service notifies gaps in Apollo cloud data by:

• large gaps (1 full day or more) are not filled and are notified with irradiation=NaN
• gaps smaller than 1 day are filled and are notified with reliability=0

A side effect was that monthly irradiation are equal to NaN as soon as one day of Apollo data was missing.

As our users indicated that this behavior was not user-friendly, we restored the gap filling for monthly requests.

We fixed a mathematical bug in the (latitude, longitude) position of the pixels of the Meteosat satellite images.

This fix changes (a little) the result of all CAMS Radiation requests.

CAMS Radiation Service version number is increased to 3.2.

CAMS Radiation service uses a model named Apollo from the DLR to compute clouds. Since 2018-06-01, the DLR is experiencing problems to retrieve the Meteosat satellite images on time.

UPDATE: this problem is fixed since 2018-06-21.

So far, CAMS Radiation Service sometimes notified a gap with irradiation=NaN and sometimes with reliability=0.

This new version is more coherent:

• large gaps (1 full day or more) are not filled and are notified with irradiation=NaN
• gaps smaller than 1 day are filled and are notified with reliability=0

McClear, CAMS Radiation and Helioclim-3 version 5 use aerosols, ozone and water vapor computed by the C-IFS meteorological model from ECMWF.

This model will be updated on 2018-06-26.

The Persistence Forecast algorithm available at http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/radiation/helioclim-3-real-time-and-forecast used to set incorrectly a parameter named "minimum elevation angle". This bug led to forecasts not available about one hour after sunrise. It is now fixed.

Please note that this bug did not impact the web services /pub/hc3v4_persistence_forecast.php and /pub/hc3v4_meteo_persistence_forecast.php

Warning:
We have removed Helioclim-3 version 2 (hc3v2) and version 3 (hc3v3)

We have removed Helioclim-3 version 2 (hc3v2) and version 3 (hc3v3).
These services are obsolete for several years. If you still use them, you must upgrade to:

• HelioClim-3 version 5 (HC3v5): our most precise version, available up to d-2 (the day before yesterday), or
• HelioClim-3 version 4 (HC3v4): faster and available up to d+1 (tomorrow)

More information about HelioClim-3 versions.

CAMS AOD web service http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/atmosphere/cams-aod was not able to provide atmospheric values after 2015-12-01.

This bug is now fixed.

We fixed a few bugs in McClear clear sky model. The results are slightly modified in October 2012 and September-November 2015.
We increased McClear version number to 3.1.

This change in McClear modifies also CAMS Radiation and Helioclim-3 models.

The snow depth values reported by MERRA-2 web service http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/meteo-data/merra was incorrect. This bug is now fixed.

MERRA-2 raw data are defined on a 50 km grid.
SoDa applies now a bilinear interpolation to MERRA-2 snow depth to improve the data precision.

We also replaced MERRA coarse seashore by a high resolution seashore. Snow depth at ocean locations is now 0 (instead of -999).

GFS raw data are defined on a 18km grid.
SoDa applies now a bilinear interpolation to GFS snow depth to improve the data precision.

We also replaced GFS coarse seashore by a high resolution seashore. Snow depth at ocean locations is now 0 (instead of -999).

CAMS Radiation service uses a model named Apollo from the DLR to compute clouds. On 2017-10-21, a fire occured in the DLR server room.

From this date to 2018-02-23, the DLR has ben able able to provide us cloud data with a delay (typically up to d-3 instead of d-2).

This problem is now fixed.

Changes in the constellation of Meteosat satellites

Warning:
During a future SoDa update (planned in March 2018), SoDa will remove Helioclim-3 version 2 (hc3v2) and version 3 (hc3v3)

Warning:
During a future SoDa update (planned in March 2018), SoDa will remove HelioClim-3 version 2 (hc3v2) and version 3 (HC3v3).
 
These services are obsolete for several years. If you still use them, please upgrade to:

• HelioClim-3 version 5 (HC3v5): our most precise version, available up to d-2 (the day before yesterday), or
• HelioClim-3 version 4 (HC3v4): faster and available up to d+1 (tomorrow)

More information about HelioClim-3 versions.

#566 Increase CAMS Radiation limit to 40 requests per day

From 2018-01-10 to 2018-01-17, the web site http://solar.atmosphere.copernicus.eu was not available.

http://solar.atmosphere.copernicus.eu is a subset of www.soda-pro.com with only CAMS Radiation and McClear services.

Fixed bug #555 "Since 2017-11-22 update, CAMS and MERRA forms are not displayed in Chrome"

CAMS Radiation service uses a model named Apollo from the DLR to compute clouds. On 2017-10-21, a fire occured in the DLR server room. Since this date, the DLR is able to provide us cloud data with a delay (typically up to d-3 instead of d-2).

This problem is not yet fixed.

The handling of monthly requests was not uniform when start and end dates do not define entire months.
We modified Helioclim-3, Helioclim-1, MERRA-2 and GFS to enlarge partial months requests to entire months. For request overlapping current month, McClear and CAMS Radiation gave "nan" values. So for coherency purpose, the monthly requests are first cropped to full month, and the request is then run with those cropped months.

CAMS Radiation Service features a new version 3 with:

• McClear clear sky model v3  (see #494 below)
• An empirical bias correction algorithm aiming at reducing errors in irradiation and clearness index. It has been created by fitting functions onto measurements performed at several BSRN stations taken globally.

Access:

• the CAMS Radiation version 3 service
• the new CAMS Radiation validation results
• The bias correction description
• The description of the new CAMS McClear model

No impact.

If possible, users should redo all past CAMS Radiation Service requests to enjoy the improvements of v3.

McClear clear sky model features a new version 3 that fixes discontinuities in space and time (during day as well as seasons), uses less memory and reduces (a little) the error when compared to ground measurements.

Access:

• the McClear version 3 service
• the McClear version 3 documentation
• the new HC3v4 and v5 validation results over the BSRN stations

Can potentially impact HelioClim-3 version 5 by 1 to 2%.

McClear, CAMS Radiation and HelioClim-3 version 5 services use a meteorological model from ECMWF to describe the atmosphere.
Since 2017-09-26, this model has been upgraded to version 43r3.

See https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/implementation-ifs-cycle-43r3cams

The Irradiation Validation Report service has been improved: it allows you to compare HelioClim-3 and CAMS Radiation data with ground measurements at 31 locations for hourly and daily time steps.

Access the Irradiation Validation Report service

This service provides time series of UV-A (315–400 nm) and UV-B (280–315 nm) Irradiation values over a horizontal plane computed from the satellite-derived radiation database HelioClim-3.

Access the Spectral irradiation from HelioClim-3 service

"Frequency of Types of Sky" web service relies on external servers (ENTPE servers).  The servers has been down for a few weeks, and is no replaced by new one.

Access the Frequency of Types of Sky Web service

The HC3 + Meteo Archives,  HC3 + Meteo Persistence Forecast and HC3 + Meteo Similarity Forecast web services support now batches of machine-2-machine requests using curl tool.

The machine-2-machine access is described at:

• HC3 Archives + Meteo data automatic access
• HC3 Persistence Forecast + Meteo data automatic access
• HC3 Similarity Forecast + Meteo data automatic access

The MERRA-2 web service supports now batches of machine-2-machine requests using curl tool.

Please read the machine-2-machine access to MERRA-2 page for more information.

In Feb. 2016, the NASA stopped updating MERRA-1 and replaced it by MERRA-2.
SoDa maintained MERRA-1 web service merra_request.php during the transition period.
This period is now over. Please upgrade to MERRA-2!

Please read the machine-2-machine access to MERRA-2 page for more information.

To improve the reliability, we have implemented a second GFS processing chain on SoDa mirror server.

The machine-2-machine access to GFS is described on this page

The GFS web service supports now batches of machine-2-machine requests using curl tool.

The machine-2-machine access to GFS is described on this page

McClear, CAMS Radiation and Helioclim-3 version 5 services use a meteorological model from ECMWF to describe the atmosphere.
This model is updated daily. This update has been broken from 2017-08-27 to 2017-08-30.

"HC3 + MERRA-2 Archives" web service is replaced by an enhanced version "HC3 + Meteo Archives" = HelioClim-3 irradiation + meteorological data from MERRA-2 (NASA) and GFS (NCEP).
This service is available up to d-1 for HC3v4 and up to d-2 for HC3v5.

This service is available by selecting the "Add Meteo Data" option in HelioClim-3 Archives web forms:

• http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/radiation/helioclim-3-archives-for-pay
• http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/radiation/helioclim-3-archives-for-free

The automatic access to HC3 is described here.

Changes in the output format header:

• we added NCEP in the list of providers
• we changed the header lines order
• we added a line "#Meteo Data" to indicate the period using MERRA-2 and the period using GFS
• we added a line "# Min Sun Elevation" describing the min-sun-elevation parameter from which HelioClim-3 data are computed
• we added a line "# Columns:" to separate the columns description from the rest of the header

Introduction of a new web service "HC3 + Meteo Forecast" = Helioclim-3 irradiation forecast + meteorological forecast from GFS (NCEP).
This service is available up to d+1 (HC3v4 only).

This service is available by selecting the "Add Meteo Data" option in Helioclim-3 Forecast web form http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/radiation/helioclim-3-real-time-and-forecast

The automatic access is described at

• HC3 Persistence forecast (current day)
• HC3 Similarity forecast (Tomorrow)

Small change in MERRA-2 .csv output format header:
we added a line "# Columns:" to separate the columns description from the rest of the header

• we changed the header lines order
• we added a line "# Columns:" to separate the columns description from the rest of the header

Introduction of a new Global Forecast Service (GFS) that provides meteorological forecasts from NCEP from month-1 up to d+3.

You can use for free the web form http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/meteo-data/gfs-forecasts

Please contact support-sales@soda-is.com if you are interested by the machine 2 machine web service.

Modification of the new "HC3 + MERRA 2" output format:

- to have csv files created by web forms and by wget requests identical

- to make Excel able to open seamlessly this format

Changes are:

- use date and time formats compatible with Excel

- header lines start with # character

- use semicolon as field separator

Modification of the new HC3 request output format named "HC3 Unified Format":

- to have csv files created by web forms and by wget requests identical

- to make Excel able to open seamlessly this format

Changes are:

- use date and time formats compatible with Excel

- header lines start with # character

- use semicolon as field separator

See http://www.soda-pro.com/help/helioclim/helioclim-3-outputs

Modification of MERRA 2 output format:

- to have csv files created by web forms and by wget requests identical

- to make Excel able to open seamlessly this format

Changes are:

- use date and time formats compatible with Excel

- header lines start with # character

- use semicolon as field separator

Fixed bug #462 "Web service "normal year of global radiation and air temperature" broken"

See http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/typical-years/normal-year-global-radiation-temperature

Introduction of a new "HC3 + MERRA 2" web service that lets you get Helioclim-3 and meteo data in one request.
This first version is only available via machine 2 machine (wget) requests.
Please contact support-sales@soda-is.com if you are interested.

No impact to existing code.

HC3 users must adapt their code to use the new "HC3 + MERRA 2" web service.

Introduction of a new HC3 request output format named "HC3 Unified Format" independant of the time step.

See http://www.soda-pro.com/help/helioclim/helioclim-3-outputs

No impact to existing code.

Small changes in the header of the classic HC3 request format (time step dependant) and of MERRA 2 request format:
- lines have been added to HC3 header
- text was changed in HC3 and MERRA 2 headers

HC3 users who wrote code to parse HC3 or MERRA 2 requests should check that this code still works.

Tip: parsing code should ignore comments and blank lines.

This Web service, provided by MINES ParisTech, returns the altitude value in meters from three different Digital Elevation Models:

• SRTM: spatial coverage in degrees: [-56S;+60N] [-180W;+180E], spatial resolution 90 m, uncertainty 10 m.
• GTOPO30": worldwide, 30" d'arc = 1 km.
• TB5': worldwide, 5' d'arc = 10 km.

#456

MERRA 2 is too slow

Improved speed of MERRA 2 requests

No impact

#78

New web form "Frequency of types of sky" provided by ENTPE

This service provides three different sky types: sunny, intermediate and cloudy, for a period covering 1996 to 2000, for any site located in Western and Central Europe:
http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/typical-years/frequency-of-types-of-sky

No impact

#78

New web form "E0 and ToA" provided by MINES ParisTech

No impact

#78

New web form "Tl and other atmospheric parameters" provided by METEOTEST

This service provides monthly climatological values of Linke Turbidity factor (Tl) for air mass 2, ozone (O3), water vapor (WV) and Angstroembeta (å). Service available worldwide:

Linke Turbidity factor Web interface

No impact

Creation of monthly irradiation maps available on the following website:
http://www.photovoltaique.info/Carte-interactive-de-productible.html

#433

New web form "GFS Archives on 0.5° grid"

The Global Forecast System archives 0.5° Web service, available worldwide, delivers time series of Temperature (at 2 m), Relative Humidity (at 2 m), Pressure (at 2 m), Wind speed and direction (at 10 m), with a original time step of 3 hours and on a grid of 0.5° (Approx. 50 km). Data are available since March 2004 up to day-1.
Be careful: the service is not yet available
http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/meteo-data/gfs-archives

No impact

#433

New web form "GFS Forecasts on 0.25° grid"

Same as above, except that the service is available on a 0.25° grid (corresponding approximately to 28 km):
http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/meteo-data/gfs-forecasts

No impact

#434

Increment the max number of CAMS Radiation requests per day

Increment the max number of CAMS Radiation requests per day from 15 to 25.

See http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/radiation/cams-radiation-service

CAMS Radiation users are allowed to run up to 25 requests per day :-)

Create solar.atmosphere.copernicus.eu microsite

Create solar.atmosphere.copernicus.eu microsite with 2 pages:

http://solar.atmosphere.copernicus.eu/cams-radiation-service

http://solar.atmosphere.copernicus.eu/cams-mcclear.

No impact

No impact

No impact

#421

Upgrade of the CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service) real-time data assimilation and forecasting system on 2017-01-24

The CAMS numeric weather model that provides inputs to McClear, CAMS Radiation and Helioclim-3 version 5 irradiation models has been improved on 2017-01-24

No impact

#422

Fixed 1 hour time shift in MERRA 1 and MERRA 2

Fixed 1 hour time shift in MERRA 1 and MERRA 2.

All MERRA 1 and MERRA 2 requests made prior to 2017-02-13 are shifted by 1 hour. This creates a small error.

If possible, users should redo all  MERRA requests made prior to 2017-02-13

#419

Fixed bug in MERRA 2 snow depth

In previous release, MERRA 2 snow depth was set to -999 (missing value) over the ocean. Now set to 0.

No impact

#403

Improvements of HelioClim-3 web forms

New field "plane mode" to provide a more user friendly interface to specify sun tracking information in HelioClim-3 web forms (HC3 for pay, HC3 for free, HC3 real time and forecast).

We also added animations describing the sun tracking in HelioClim-3.

More user friendly

#404

Fixed bug when selecting a location in web forms

Fixed a bug that forbid users to select precisely a location in www.soda-pro.com web forms

More user friendly

#416

#425

Bug fixes in CAMS Radiation service monitoring

Bug fixes in CAMS Radiation service monitoring

Restricted to CAMS project members

The McClear and CAMS Radiation (ex MACC-RAD) web services have been officially moved from toolbox.webservice-energy.org to www.soda-is.com on 2016-04-20.

We kept the old web services on toolbox.webservice-energy.org during a transition period. They have been removed today.

Users of the obsolete web services on toolbox.webservice-energy.org must upgrade their code.

See http://www.soda-pro.com/help/cams-services/cams-radiation-service/automatic-access

-

MERRA2 service includes rain and snow information

MERRA2 service includes rain and snow information: see http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/meteo-data/merra

The MERRA 2 service provides 3 additional columns:

• Rainfall in kg/m²
• Snowfall in kg/m²
• Snow depth in m

#410

MERRA 2 service speedup

MERRA 2 service is much faster thanks to a SSD drive

No impact

#78

New web form to access NASA-SSE service

New web form to access NASA-SSE service: http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/radiation/nasa-sse

More user friendly

#78

New web form to access Monthly Means of Solar Irradiance, Temperature and Relative Humidity service

New web form to access Monthly Means of Solar Irradiance, Temperature and Relative Humidity service: http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/meteo-data/monthly-means-solar-irradiance-temperature-relative-humidity

More user friendly

-

Fixed rare bugs in the way Helioclim-3 takes into account the relief shadows

Fixed rare bugs in the way Helioclim-3 takes into account the relief shadows

No impact

#191

Bug fixes in CAMS Radiation service monitoring when accessed from DLR

Bug fixes in CAMS Radiation service monitoring when accessed from DLR

Restricted to CAMS project members

#397

CAMS radiation gives different results on www.soda-is.com and pro.soda-is.com since 2016-10-05

CAMS radiation gives different results on www.soda-is.com and pro.soda-is.com since 2016-10-05

If possible, users should redo CAMS radiation requests computed by www.soda-is.com and pro.soda-is.com from 2016-10-05 to 2016-10-18

#390

Fixed McClear atmospheric profiles

Fixed weights > 1.0 and < 0.0 in McClear atmospheric profiles

No impact

#191

CAMS Radiation service monitoring works on www.soda-pro.com

CAMS Radiation service monitoring works on www.soda-pro.com

Restricted to CAMS project members

-

Removed www.helioclim.org web site

Removed remaining web pages from www.helioclim.org web site

No impact

-

Changed www.soda-pro.com license

Changed www.soda-pro.com license to match the new CAMS license

Users can read the new license here

-

Changes in McClear and CAMS Radiation web pages

Added hyperlinks to https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/user-support-0 in McClear and CAMS Radiation web pages

No impact

#381

Download errors after CAMS system upgrade on 2016-06-21

After CAMS system upgrade on 2016-06-21, we encountered download errors up to 2016-08-12.

No impact

#379

Fixed bug in Apollo Cloud monitoring

Fixed bug in Apollo Cloud monitoring

Restricted to CAMS project members

-

Upgrade of McClear WPS

Added verbose HDF5 output to McClear WPS

No impact

#373

MERRA 2 replaces MERRA 1

NASA has ended MERRA 1 on 2016-02-29. It is superseded by MERRA 2 which is also available from SoDa web site.

MERRA web interface at http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/meteo-data/merra has been upgraded to MERRA 2 => no impact for SoDa users.

merra_request.php web service is superseded by merra2_request.php => SoDa users should update their code.

#377

Fixed missing data in MERRA 1

Fixed missing data in MERRA 1. Missing data appear as -999 values.

If possible, users should redo MERRA 1 requests made prior to 2016-08-16

#368

Fixed end date in MERRA 1 requests

MERRA 1 is available from NASA with a 1 month delay. MERRA 1 requests are now properly clipped at the last date available.

Avoid missing values (-999) after the last date available from NASA

#369

Upgrade of the CAMS real-time data assimilation and forecasting system on 2016-06-21

The CAMS numeric weather model that provides inputs to McClear, CAMS Radiation and Helioclim-3 version 5 irradiation models has been improved on 2016-06-21. The new model uses a 0.4 degree grid (about 40 km) and computes now hourly previsions twice a day.

No impact

-

McClear and CAMS Radiation web pages have a new look & feel

http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/radiation/cams-radiation-service and http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/radiation/cams-mcclear use now the look & feel of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (http://atmosphere.copernicus.eu) that funded these services.

No impact

-

Change in McClear and CAMS Radiation requests header

Added link to release notes information on  www.soda-pro.com in McClear and CAMS Radiation .csv output files

No impact

#78

New web form to access Helioclim-1 service

New web form to access Helioclim-1 service: http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/radiation/helioclim-1

More user friendly

#358

Fixed bug in Helioclim 1

Fixed bug: web service hc1_request.php did not work properly with a weekly time step

No impact

#356

Fixed bug in Helioclim 1

Fixed bug: Helioclim 1 requests should reject incorrect days

No impact

#355

Fixed bug in Helioclim 1

Fixed bug: bad check of dates in Helioclim 1 request

No impact

#335

Fixed bug in Meteosat 10 satellite image processing

Fixed rare bug when decoding Meteosat 10 satellite images

No impact

#333

Improved irradiation service for In Sun We Trust

We improved the irradiation service used by https://www.insunwetrust.solar/ and we moved it from test server http://toolbox.webservice-energy.org to production servers www.soda-is.com and http://pro.soda-is.com

No impact

#319

Increased CAMS Radiation Service limit

Increased CAMS Radiation Service limit from 5 to 15 requests per day

No impact

#319

McClear and CAMS Radiation WPS are moved to www.soda-is.com

McClear and CAMS Radiation WPS are moved from test server http://toolbox.webservice-energy.org to production servers www.soda-is.com and http://pro.soda-is.com

McClear and CAMS Radiation WPS users should update their code.

#319

MACC-RAD service is renamed CAMS Radiation

The MACC-III project (http://www.gmes-atmosphere.eu/) that funded MACC-RAD and McClear services is replaced by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (http://atmosphere.copernicus.eu). A consequence is that the MACC-RAD service is renamed CAMS Radiation.

The get_macc_rad WPS is renamed get_cams_radiation. Users should update their code.

#268

Fixed bug in McClear web form

Bug fix: sometimes, McClear web form http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/radiation/cams-mcclear fails with a "Connection reset" error

No impact

#325

Fixed bug in Irradiation Validation Report

Fixed bug in Irradiation Validation Report http://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/validation/irradiation-validation-report in 2004

No impact

#326

Improved HelioClim-3 version 4 real time service

HelioClim-3 version 4 real time service starts working at sunrise. The previous version used to start when sun elevation angle was over 12°.

No impact

#306

Fixed Helioclim-3 1D sun tracking

Fixed Helioclim-3 1D sun tracking that was totally buggy

Helioclim-3 1D sun tracking is now usable

Fixed bug in Meteosat 8 satellite image processing

Fixed rare bug when decoding Meteosat 8 satellite images

No impact