Improved version of SoDa/CAMS load balancer

This upgrade introduces an improved version of SoDa/CAMS load balancer. The load balancer can process more requests at the same time and has a better detection of failures.
We invite you to call SoDa/CAMS requests on https://api.soda-solardata.com server instead of https://www.soda-is.com or https://www.soda-is.com.

Incomplete error message for CAMS request without registered email

Fixed error message for CAMS request without registered email (used to be truncated)

CAMS server crash in 2024-01 due to burst of traffic

Fixed crash in 2024-01 due to many CAMS requests at the same time

CAMS requests through load balancer are failing randomly

Fixed random bug in CAMS requests through load balancer for new CAMS users

Lock error in CAMS services

Fixed random error in CAMS services when many requests were executed at the same time

#1088

SSL certificate of https://solar.atmosphere.copernicus.eu obsolete

Access to https://solar.atmosphere.copernicus.eu has being impossible since mid-February due to an obsolete SSL certificate. This problem is now fixed.

#1084

Crash for McClear request with invalid latitude or longitude

Fixed bug that used to crash McClear request if latitude is not between -90 and 90 deg, or longitude is not between 0 and 360 deg

#1053

SoDa subscriptions: prospection/monitoring/forecasting/meteo

The SoDa commercial offer is now divided into 4 possibilities:

• HC3 prospection subscription
• HC3 monitoring subscription
• HC3 forecasting subscription
• Meteo subscription

The 2023-10-17 upgrade introduces new web applications that provide a graphical user interface for the new web services.

CAMS Radiation Service for HIMAWARI field of view

On 2023-10-17, the CAMS Radiation Service for HIMAWARI satellite field of view will open officially.

CAMS Radiation Service API is unchanged. See the documentation at https://www.soda-pro.com/help/cams-services/cams-radiation-service/automatic-access 

Feel free to contact soda@transvalor.com for more details.

#1035

New error messages for CAMS Radiation and McClear services

In order to support HIMAWARI satellite, SoDa will switch on 2023-10-17 to a new version of CAMS Radiation and McClear services. This will be mostly transparent for users, except error messages that are modified (new XML file format).

Please adapt your error handling code if you use CAMS Radiation and McClear services API.

See the API documentation at:
- https://www.soda-pro.com/help/cams-services/cams-radiation-service/automatic-access 
- https://www.soda-pro.com/help/cams-services/cams-mcclear-service/automatic-access

Please adapt your error handling code if you use CAMS Radiation and McClear services API

#1053

SoDa subscriptions: prospection/monitoring/forecasting/meteo

The SoDa commercial offer is now divided into 4 possibilities:

• HC3 prospection subscription
• HC3 monitoring subscription
• HC3 forecasting subscription
• Meteo subscription

The 2023-07-23 upgrade introduces new web services corresponding to the new subscriptions.

Upgrade of Helioclim-3 version 5 all sky model. This new version uses the new version 48r1 of CAMS IFS numerical weather introduced on 2023-06-27.

Data prior to 2023-06-27 are unchanged.

New improved version of CAMS Radiation Service all sky model. This version 4.6 uses the new version 48r1 of CAMS IFS numerical weather introduced on 2023-06-27.

Please note that a new column SOAOD550 has been added to the csv output format of the Expert mode.

In CAMS Radiation Service verbose mode, cloud type was 5=low-level cloud on clear sky instants. It should be 0.

New improved version of McClear clear sky model. This version 3.6 uses the new version 48r1 of CAMS IFS numerical weather introduced on 2023-06-27.

Data prior to 2023-06-27 are unchanged.

Please note that a new column SOAOD550 has been added to the csv output format of the Expert mode.

Beta test: CAMS Radiation Service for HIMAWARI field of view

On 2023-07-03, the CAMS Radiation Service for HIMAWARI satellite field of view will open in beta test.

CAMS Radiation Service API is unchanged. See the documentation at https://www.soda-pro.com/help/cams-services/cams-radiation-service/automatic-access 

Feel free to contact soda@transvalor.com for more details.

#1035

New error messages for CAMS Radiation and McClear services

In order to support HIMAWARI satellite, SoDa will switch on 2023-07-03 to new servers hosting CAMS Radiation and McClear services. This will be mostly transparent for end users, except error messages that are modified.

Please adapt your code

https://api.soda-solardata.com

A load balancer has been set up, it will ease your usage of the SoDa services :

https://api.soda-solardata.com

The examples of scripts are updated (see url : https://www.soda-pro.com/help/automatic-access/examples-of-scripts )

---

SoDa subscriptions: prospection/monitoring/forecasting/meteo

The SoDa commercial offer is now divided into 4 possibilities:

• HC3 prospection subscription
• HC3 monitoring subscription
• HC3 forecasting subscription
• Meteo subscription

#990

McClear monthly request in TST time reference

McClear now accept requests in TST for monthly time step.

#1008

New PAR irradiation model

New portlets for PAR irradiation

Based on a validation wrt ground measurements, we changed the PAR model used by SoDa from Udo & Aro to Jacovides.

The PAR service moved:

• PAR demo: ​https://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/spectral/spectral-par-from-helioclim3-demo
  
• PAR for pay: ​https://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/spectral/spectral-par-from-helioclim3
  

Please contact support-sales@soda-is.com if you are interested.

#1008

New portlets for UV irradiation

The PAR service moved:

• UV demo: ​https://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/spectral/spectral-uv-from-helioclim3-demo
  
• UV for pay: ​https://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/spectral/spectral-uv-from-helioclim3
  

Please contact support-sales@soda-is.com if you are interested.

#1009

New portlets for Helioclim-3 Realtime and Forecast irradiation

The Helioclim-3 Realtime and Forecast service moved:

• Helioclim-3 Realtime and Forecast demo: https://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/radiation/helioclim-3-real-time-and-forecast-demo​
  
• Helioclim-3 Realtime and Forecast for pay: https://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/radiation/helioclim-3-real-time-and-forecast​
  

Please contact support-sales@soda-is.com if you are interested.

#1009

New portlets for MERRA numerical weather model

MERRA numerical weather model moved:

• MERRA demo: https://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/meteo-data/merra-demo​
  
• MERRA for pay: https://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/meteo-data/merra​
  

Please contact support-sales@soda-is.com if you are interested.

#1009

New portlets for GFS numerical weather model

GFS numerical weather model moved:

• GFS demo: https://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/meteo-data/gfs-forecasts-demo​
  
• GFS for pay: https://www.soda-pro.com/en/web-services/meteo-data/gfs-forecasts
  

The GFS for pay service supports now requests from 2019-01-01 up to 15 days in the future.

Please contact support-sales@soda-is.com if you are interested.

#520

2nd APOLLO_NG processing chain

CAMS Radiation Service uses internally APOLLO_NG model from DLR to compute clouds opacity. Since 10/26/2022, CAMS Radiation Service uses a second APOLLO_NG production chain to improve redundancy.

Specific to SoDa customers with a subscription:
Since 2022-09-02 upgrade, each SoDa customer can check his/her number of requests at https://www.soda-pro.com/monitor

This upgrade fixes a bug in the loading animation.

New improved version of Helioclim-3 v5 all sky model. This version reduces the bias wrt ground measurements thanks to a better clear sky model (McClear 3.5, see below).

New improved version of CAMS Radiation Service all sky model. This version 4.5 uses a better clear sky model (McClear 3.5, see below) and no bias correction anymore.

New improved version of McClear clear sky model. This version 3.5 reduces the bias wrt ground measurements thanks to CAMS IFS Reanalysis data provided by ECMWF.

Specific to SoDa customers with a subscription to automatic requests:
After 2022-09-02 upgrade, each SoDa customer will be able check the number of automatic requests he/she launched and verify if it is below the number of requests included in the subscription at https://www.soda-pro.com/monitor

Customers interested by AI Forecast service can get archives of the AI Forecast service for test purpose. ​​​​​​​See usage of hc3v5_past_ai_forecast.php at https://www.soda-pro.com/help/automatic-access/ai-forecast

This service was broken on SoDa main server. This is now fixed.

The CAMS-AOD service, delivers time series of Aerosol Optical Depth provided by ECMWF. This service is available from 2004 to 2021-06-30.

The end date has been fixed in CAMS-AOD form https://www.soda-pro.com/web-services/atmosphere/cams-aod

#854

On 2022-06-15, SoDa web services server http://www.soda-is.com​​​​​​​ will switch to https.
If you use SoDa and CAMS services only via https://www.soda-pro.com web site, you are fine.
If you use SoDa/CAMS services automatic access, i.e. if you directly call SoDa/CAMS web services, you will have to adapt your code.

On 2022-06-15:

• http://www.soda-is.com will remain a regular http server (without redirection to https)
• https://www.soda-is.com will be a new https server

We will keep both http://www.soda-is.com and https://www.soda-is.com running for several months, and you will have plenty of time to adapt your code to https://www.soda-is.com after the upgrade.

#848

The CAMS Radiation and McClear services are funded by the CAMS project of the European Union. The EU requires addditional information about CAMS users: country and type of company.

#854

On 2022-02-09, http://www.soda-pro.com​​​​​​​ will switch to https. This change should be transparent to SoDa users.

Please note that SoDa web services server http://www.soda-is.com will not switch to https on 2022-02-09. This is planned for the next SoDa upgrade, in March 2022.

#939

GFS forecasts service distributed by SoDa can now optionally provide meteo forecasts up to 15 days in the future (instead of 3).

Please contact support-sales@soda-is.com if you are interested.

GFS cycle updates have been optimized:

• ​​​​​​​for the cycle 0 (that starts at midnight), the d+3 forecasts are now available on SoDa servers in average at 4h30 UT and the d+15 forecasts at 5h30 UT.
• ​​​​​​​same thing for the other GFS cycles every 6 hours.

GFS users can now be notified of GFS cycle updates using "GFS Info" utility (http://www.soda-is.com/pub/gfs_info.php). See usage at http://www.soda-pro.com/help/automatic-access/gfs

Please note that GFS and HC3+METEO requests have now an extra header line indicating the latest GFS cycle at the time of the request.

See "GFS Info" usage at http://www.soda-pro.com/help/automatic-access/gfs

Please note that GFS and HC3+METEO requests have now an extra header line.

Customers interested by AI Forecast service can now get archives of the AI Forecast service for test purpose. ​​​​​​​See usage of hc3v5_past_ai_forecast.php at http://www.soda-pro.com/help/automatic-access/ai-forecast

Please contact support-sales@soda-is.com​​​​​​​ if you are interested​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​.

On 2021-11-29, NASA warned MERRA-2 users of a bias detected in near-surface temperature reaching 2°C around the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico during late summer 2021, with generally smaller values elsewhere.

MERRA-2 reprocessing for June-September 2021 is available on SoDa servers since 2021-12-26.

#857
 

www.soda-pro.com web site is implemented in a Content Management System named Liferay.

On 2021-11-03, www.soda-pro.com switches to Liferay 7.3. This change should be transparent to SoDa users.

This is a technical step necessary to the future switch to https.

#860

In compliance with European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), SoDa has always limited the collection of personal data to what is strictly necessary.

This point is now documented on www.soda-pro.com, incuding the cookies used by the web site.

We faced a gap in APOLLO data from 2021-10-20 to 2021-10-28. This gap is fixed since 2021-10-31.

#900

McClear clear-sky model uses a description of the atmosphere provided by CAMS IFS meteo model.

ECMWF upgraded CAMS IFS meteo model to version 47r3 on 2021-10-12. This will improve slightly McClear clear-sky model (and Helioclim-3 v5 and CAMS Radiation models that use McClear) for future requests.

Note that data before 2021-10-12 are not modified.

#235
#813
#867
 

Since 2013, CAMS Radiation service uses a cloud model named APOLLO provided by the DLR research lab. The version 4.0 of CAMS Radiation Service includes a new version APOLLO Next Generation that improves cloud detection using fuzzy logic.

CAMS Radiation Service 4.0 fixes the MSG satellite projection before 12/2017.

CAMS Radiation Service 4.0 includes also a brand new global correction that minimizes the error with respect to ground measurements.

#690

McClear clear-sky model uses a description of the atmosphere provided by CAMS IFS meteo model.

During 07/2019 - 09/2020 period, the version 46r1 of CAMS IFS did not evaluate accurately the amount of dust in the atmosphere. This lowered the quality of McClear in desertic regions.

This bug is fixed in CAMS IFS since version 47r1 in October 2020.

Since 2021-06-28, we also fixed the 07/2019 - 09/2020 period.
As Helioclim-3 v5 and CAMS Radiation Service use McClear, this fix also applies to these services.

We faced a gap in APOLLO data from 2021-06-12 to 2021-06-16. This gap is fixed since 2021-06-17.

#808
#802

Improvements of the web site security. Some accounts detected as robots have been removed.

CAMS Radiation service uses a cloud model named Apollo provided by the DLR research lab.

We faced a gap in Apollo data from 2020-07-16 to 2020-07-27. This gap is fixed since 2020-08-06.

An outage due to fire alarm occured at DLR premises on 2020-09-13, creating a gap from 09/12 21h15 to 09/14 12h00. This gap is fixed since 2020-09-17.

Improvements of our new service "Helioclim-3 AI Forecast", a prevision service for today/tomorrow based on Artificial Intelligence:

• improved predictions
• several time steps available, from 1 to 60 minutes
• irradiation on tilted plane and sun tracking available
• direct and diffuse irradiations available
• takes into account the relief shadows

Please feel free to contact support-sales@soda-is.com if you want to get more information.

#754

Users may now speed up Helioclim-3 requests with meteo data by selecting only some columns.

#728
#749
#752
#757

#778

#728
#749
#752
#757

#733

Improvements of our new service "Helioclim-3 AI Forecast"

Speed and quality improvements of our new service "Helioclim-3 AI Forecast", a prevision service for today/tomorrow based on Artificial Intelligence.

Creation of new error messages concerning AI Forecast service.

Please feel free to contact support-sales@soda-is.com if you want to get more information.

New error messages to consider when using automatic access to services.

#728
#749
#752

SoDa server at MINES ParisTech premises (hosting www.soda-pro.com and www.soda-is.com) faces random failures since 2019-11-13.

The problem is due to SoDa users doing (too many) requests in parallel.

This update implements a partial fix.

We improved some of the error messages returned by SoDa services. See http://www.soda-pro.com/help/faq#Errormessages

#741

Maintenance operation at the DLR premises from 2019-12-27 to 2019-12-31

CAMS Radiation Service has not been updated from 2019-12-27 to 2019-12-31 due to a large maintenance operation at the DLR premises. The DLR is the research lab that operates Apollo, the cloud model used by CAMS Radiation Service.

The missing data have been recomputed and the gap is filled since 2020-01-08.

Please redo CAMS radiation requests for period 2019-12-27 to 2019-12-31

Start of the beta testing phase of our new service "Helioclim-3 AI Forecast", a prevision service for today/tomorrow based on Artificial Intelligence.
Please feel free to contact support-sales@soda-is.com if you want to get more information.

New version of CAMS Radiation volumes over Europe and Africa with 2017 and 2018

A new version of CAMS Radiation volumes over Europe and Africa is available. We have added 2017 and 2018.

See http://www.soda-pro.com/help/cams-services/cams-radiation-service/download-europe-volume and http://www.soda-pro.com/help/cams-services/cams-radiation-service/download-africa-volume

Spectral By SoDa

The Spectral By SoDa service provides access to spectral irradiation:

- Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR),

- Ultra-Violet (UV)

- and Kato Interval data.

The download script page is updated :

Download examples of scripts

Some scripts for Spectral By Soda automatic access are now available.

GFS grib downloading was on error, due to access problem.

For HC3 portlets,

- the information links are updated.

- the "New" icon are suppressed

Bug in internal CAMS monitoring tools.

ECMWF AOD monitoring bug since 2019-07-03

#701

#702

Apollo data are missing on

- 2019-07-04, 2019-07-27 and 2019-07-28

- 2019-08-12 and 2019-08-13

#707

#711
#716

An electrical maintenance and a network maintenance occured on SoDa main server (www.soda-pro.com) on 2019-08-13. Unfortunately, this maintenance created intermittent network failures on 2019-08-14 and from 2019-08-29 to 2019-09-03. This problem is fixed since 2019-09-03.

Intermittent web services failures on 2019-08-14 and from 2019-08-29 to 2019-09-03

NCEP upgrades GFS from 14 to 15.1.

#690

CAMS IFS upgrade 46r1 on 2019-07-09

McClear, CAMS Radiation and HelioClim-3 v5 use the modelisation of the atmosphere computed by CAMS IFS meteorological model. This model will be upgraded to version 46r1 on 2019-07-09. The main impact to McClear, CAMS Radiation and HelioClim-3 v5 will be the new modelisation of nitrate and ammonium in the atmosphere. See details at https://confluence.ecmwf.int/display/COPSRV/Implementation+of+IFS+cycle+46r1

2019-07-03 upgrade of www.soda-pro.com provides the compatibility of McClear, CAMS Radiation and HelioClim-3 v5 with CAMS IFS upgrade 46r1.

McClear, CAMS Radiation and HelioClim-3 v5 output values will be unchanged before 2019-07-09. After this date, these models error will be slightly reduced.

Please note the addition of nitrate and ammonium to the output formats of McClear and CAMS Radiation (mode "verbose" only) and to the output format of CAMS AOD service.

#296

We fixed a bug in HC3 monthly requests done on www.soda-pro.com web interface. The second table with annual values were wrong, when using the "classic output format".

HC3 sunglint correction over ground locations

HC3 sunglint correction was already available over oceans.
A sunglint correction over ground locations is now implemented.
Impacted locations are desertic and tropical areas.

CAMS radiation cloud data

#669

CAMS Radiation web service is valid in Meteosat 0 deg satellite disk only. The service used to return values outside of this disk.
This is now fixed.

Integration of CAMS Radiation and McClear services into CAMS Atmospheric Data Store

CAMS Radiation and McClear .csv requests contain now a new header line with the computation date

#565

HC3v5 d-1 (yesterday) and d+1 (tomorrow) are now implemented.

HC3v4 users can now freely upgrade to HC3v5.

Enjoy :)

Spectral from HC3v5  d-1 / d

- PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) and UV services have been improved to support d-1 (yesterday) and d (today) requests.

- New service that provides real time maps of PAR irradiation.

Sometimes, GFS rain and irradiation values can be negative.

This is now fixed.

In case of McClear or CAMS Radiation monthly TST requests values used to be undefined (NaN).

This is now fixed.

A bug occurs in the latest version (11.0.96) of Internet Explorer on Windows 7: OpenStreetMap world map is not displayed properly.

This problem is fixed by displaying an alternate map for IE 11: OpenStreetMap Hot.

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.

Solar Geometry 1 service on SoDa web site was limited to 2005.

We fixed this bug. If needed, now you can requests from (far) in past to (far) in future.

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

In verbose mode, CAMS Radiation service outputs a Cloud coverage value.

It can be unspecified. Up to now, in such case CAMS Radiation Service returned 0. Now, "unspecified value" is -1.

So possible values for cloud coverage are :

• [0; 100] : for valid value.
• -1 : if not specified,

For CAMS Radiation users using "cloud coverage":
users should redo CAMS Radiation 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.

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 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
  

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 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)

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"

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).

No impact

Creation of monthly irradiation maps available on the website Photovoltaique.info

#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/fr/web-services/meteo-data/gfs-forecasts

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

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 www.soda-is.com since 2016-10-05

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

If possible, users should redo CAMS radiation requests computed by www.soda-is.com and www.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 (now broken, March 2019) 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://www.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://www.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 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