HelioClim-3 Real Time and Forecast - Usage

 

  Helioclim-3 Real Time and Forecast for today

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    Inputs - Outputs

 

This service provides HelioClim-3 version 5 radiation values estimated from satellite imagery for today. The Web interface is available for free, and the automatic access requires that you subscribe an annual subscription.

As soon as a new Meteosat image is available every 15 min, the HelioClim-3 database is updated in real time. To receive a time series covering the whole current day, we decided to complete the time series by applying a persistence model. Please find more information about:

Inputs

  • HelioClim-3 versions: forecast is available for version 5.
  • Add Meteo Data: include (or not) meteo data More information on meteo data
  • Forecast Version: "Persistence Forecast" (current day).
  • Latitude and longitude: enter the values in decimal degrees (we advise 3 or 4 digits after comma), or directly click on the map to select your point, or you can also use the "Search Address" tool on the top of the map.
  • Altitude: enter the altitude, or let us use our default high resolution elevation database SRTM (spatial resolution 90 m, uncertainty 10 m) by letting the default "Automatic" value.
  • Start date and End date: format yyyy-mm-dd.
  • Time step: "1 min", "5 min", "10 min", "15 min", "30 min", "hour", or "day".
  • Time reference: "UT" or "TST". More information on time references
  • Compute relief shadows: take into account (or not) the shadowing effect due to the far horizon.
  • Plane mode: "Horizontal Plane", "Fixed tilted plane", "2D Sun Tracking (DNI)", "1D Sun Tracking (North-South axis)", "1D Sun Tracking (East-West axis)", "1D Sun Tracking (Tilt tracking)", "1D Sun Tracking (Azimuth tracking)".
    More details on plane orientations and on how to set the tilt, azimuth and albedo parameters =>
  
  • Output format: Classic CSV Format or Unified CSV Format. See below for more details on the output column content.
 

+ Add Meteo data

Meteo data from GFS (NCEP) can be retrieved.

NB: When "+ Add meteo data" is selected, the new Unified CSV Format is selected by default.

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Outputs

  • Launch: push the "process" button, wait a while and right-click on the appeared link to retrieve your file.
  • Output formats: "Classic CSV" or "Unified CSV Format"
  • Missing data: -999
  • "End of interval" integration hypothesis: the integration hypothesis e.g. hourly data at 11:00 means data averaged over 10:00 to 11:00

  "Classic CSV"

This format is obsolete and won't be maintained since the number and content of the columns change depending on the plane orientation and the time step. Take a look to the column description of "Classic CSV".

  "Unified CSV Format"

This format is simpler which Excel can read seamlessly. It aims at being identical whatever the time step. The consequence is that you can only have two different output columns content: one for horizontal, and another one for all other plane options (fix-tilted, tracking).
NB: When "+ Add meteo data" is selected, new Unified CSV Format is automatically selected.

Horizontal

  1. Date: format yyyy-mm-dd
  2. Time: format HH:MM (no decimal anymore)
  3. Global Horizontal irradiation over the period in Wh/m² (-999 if no data)
  4. Clear-Sky: Irradiation over the period if the sky were clear in Wh/m²
  5. Top of Atmosphere: Irradiation over the period at the top of the atmosphere (extraterrestrial) in Wh/m² computed from Solar Geometry 1
  6. The reliability column has several forms depending of the time step:
    1. Code: 0: no data, 1: sun below horizon, 2: satellite assessment, 5: interpolation in time, 6: forecast
    2. Nb slots (%): ratio of the number of valid slots and the number of slots during the daylength in percent
    3. Nb valid days: number of valid days in the period

Other plane options (fix-tilted, tracking)

  1. Date: format YYYY/MM/DD
  2. Time: format HH:MM (no decimal anymore)
  3. Direct Inclined: irradiation over the period in Wh/m² (-999 if no data)
  4. Diffuse Inclined irradiation over the period in Wh/m² (-999 if no data)
  5. Reflected inclined irradiation over the period in Wh/m² (-999 if no data)
  6. Global Inclined irradiation over the period in Wh/m² (-999 if no data)
  7. Direct Horizontal irradiation over the period in Wh/m² (-999 if no data)
  8. Diffuse Horizontal irradiation over the period in Wh/m² (-999 if no data)
  9. Global Horizontal irradiation over the period in Wh/m² (-999 if no data)
  10. Clear-Sky: Irradiation over the period if the sky were clear in Wh/m²
  11. Top of Atmosphere: Irradiation over the period at the top of the atmosphere (extraterrestrial) in Wh/m² computed from Solar Geometry 1
  12. The reliability column has several forms depending of the time step:
    1. Code: 0: no data, 1: sun below horizon, 2: satellite assessment, 5: interpolation in time, 6: forecast
    2. Nb slots (%): ratio of the number of valid slots and the number of slots during the daylength in percent

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