Date of Award
10-25-2015
Document Type
Masters Capstone Project
Degree Name
M.S. in Geographic Information Science
Organizational Unit
College of Natural Science and Mathematics, Geography and the Environment
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Keywords
Solar irradiance gridded dataset, Energy systems, Ground measurements, Atmospheric or meteorological reanalysis data
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and collaborators are updating the National Solar Radiation Database with the next-generation satellite-based solar resource assessment known as the Physical Solar Model (PSM). This is part of an effort to achieve NREL and DOE’s goal to make solar energy technologies cost competitive with other forms of energy in the United States. Required in this effort is the selection of an appropriate meteorological reanalysis product- that provides critical inputs for solar energy estimation. This analysis quantitatively and qualitatively assessed the spatial and temporal accuracy of three meteorological reanalysis products using ground measurements. It was found that the NASA MERRA and CFSR reanalysis products had similar accuracies while the NARR reanalysis exhibited the least accuracy. NASA MERRA exhibited superior accuracy in total precipitable water and atmospheric pressure, which made its use in radiative transfer modeling most justifiable.
Copyright Date
10-25-2015
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
Anthony Lopez
Provenance
Received from author
File Format
application/pdf
Language
English (eng)
Extent
52 pgs
File Size
2.8 MB
Recommended Citation
Lopez, Anthony, "Selection of a Reanalysis Meteorological Product for Use in Solar Resource Assessment" (2015). Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones. 66.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/geog_ms_capstone/66