Use of OCA and APOLLO in Heliosat-4 method for the assessment of surface downwelling solar irradiance

Zhipeng Qu (1) , Philippe Blanc (2) , Mireille Lefèvre (2) , Lucien Wald (2) , Philip Watts (3) , Marion Schroedter Homscheidt (4) , Gerhard Gesell (4) , Lars Klueser (4)

1 CEP - Centre Énergétique et Procédés
2 CEP/Sophia
3 EUMETSAT - European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites
4 DLR-DFD - German Remote Sensing Data Center

We test two cloud products: Optimal Cloud Analysis (OCA) of EUMETSAT, and APOLLO from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), for the assessment of surface downwelling solar irradiance (SSI). Each product is input to the Heliosat-4 method, and the SSI estimates are compared to accurate measurements performed in the Baseline Radiation Network (BSRN). The performances obtained by the two products are compared. The overall performance of Heliosat-4 method by using different cloud products is given and conclusions on the benefit of each product for an operational Heliosat-4 are drawn.

Mots clés: remote sensing; solar radiation; solar energy; atmosphere; geostationary satellite; clouds

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]; Océan, Atmosphère; Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]; Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]; Informatique [cs]; Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]

Zhipeng Qu, Philippe Blanc, Mireille Lefèvre, Lucien Wald, Philip Watts, et al.. Use of OCA and APOLLO in Heliosat-4 method for the assessment of surface downwelling solar irradiance. 2012 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference, Sep 2012, Sopot, Poland. pp.s2-03. ⟨hal-00795325⟩