Latest Contributions by RyanDeBruyn

What does the DIFF provide your where you subtract the two results to show where the significant areas of change are? Using the focal statistics with the specified neighborhood seems like it would highlight those areas (cells) with lowest radiation (ideally because those were more obstructed) thus showing a "shadow".   For example if you had one large tree in the middle of a flat surface and ran the analysis for 1 hour, you would expect to see the effect of the shadow.  Longer overall time periods may be more generalized since the sun position is changing. Note the output of Raster Solar radiation is the total or global radiation and is a combination of direct and diffuse radiation output.   If you haven't already you may want to try with the optional output "direct radiation raster" since this will highlight the effect of shadows cast by surrounding topography more than the diffuse (which can be from many directions).  Also the direct duration raster will show the change in the amount of direct sunlight (hrs) for your analysis time configuration (start and end).  To show those cells which recieve "less or more" direct sunlight. What is your analysis cellsize? What is the time configuration (start and end)? As an example, this was my result of the focal statistics (3x3 rectangle minimum) on the direct radiation output. I ran an analysis on a 1meter DSM  for 1 hour in January 1 in Los Angeles.  Areas in black show values = zero (no light).    ... View more

I agree this is a great question one the we will build on for training materials, analysis demos and future blogs. I'd like to add the note, for analyzing raster surfaces, the Raster Solar Radiation tool provides enhanced functionality or performance from the Area Solar Radiation tool. The Area Solar will be deprecated in a future release.   See additional details in my earlier reply above. ... View more

@NadaKadhim  ArcGIS Pro has the Solar Radiation Tools you can use to analyze and to create an insolation surface from an elevation surface or DSM (digital surface model).  The result of this analysis could be one variable in your Optimal Site analysis for a solar farm. If you have not yet already discovered these Solar tools.  Here are some links. (Requires Spatial Analyst extension) https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/tool-reference/spatial-analyst/how-raster-solar-radiation-works.htm https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/tool-reference/spatial-analyst/raster-solar-radiation.htm For finding best locations you can look into Weighted Overlay to solve multicriteria problems such as site selection and suitability models https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/tool-reference/spatial-analyst/how-weighted-overlay-works.htm Tutorials: https://learn.arcgis.com/en/projects/estimate-solar-power-potential/ https://learn.arcgis.com/en/projects/site-a-sustainable-shrimp-farm/  The ArcGIS Spatial Analyst community page has additional resources and is a good place for tool specific questions. Good luck! -Ryan     ... View more

> can you clarify what you mean but run with additional tools?  Thank you.  I was wondering if the same data works in other Spatial Analyst tools such as Slope or Hillshade? Or if you'd had success with Raster Solar using other data or test cases? The error looks to point to an issue with the analysis environment during run time (extent, cellsize, spatial reference, etc) whether set explicitly by user or by default getting it from the input data.  It is hard to know exactly without the data.  What is the spatial reference and cellsize? Perhaps you can share the data (you can message me directly) or if possible contact Esri Support if there are additional issues and need assistance? -Ryan ... View more

Hi Rachael. This was an old issue but looked to be solved by making sure the output workspace or scratchWorkspace is set to a valid file directory or geodatabase. Make sure you have write permissions.  Are you able to run with additional tools or input data? What version of ArcGIS are you using?   If using ArcGIS Pro 3.2 or greater I'd recommend using the Feature Solar Radiation tool or  Raster Solar Radiation tool which provides enhanced functionality and performance. ... View more

When running ExtractByMask, can you try using the environment settings for the GP tool. Set output coordinate system, cellsize, and snap raster to be the same as the input raster ... View more

Hello Lars thank you for your post.    I am sorry to hear you are having issues with the new tools.  I will reach out to you directly to get more details. Your use case is great example of how we can extend these tools.  The Raster Solar Radiation tool currently does not have the ability  to change the number of search directions and you are correct that 32 search directions are default.  Supporting a user define number of search directions is on our road map for ArcGIS Pro and this is helpful for our prioritization.  For these types of analysis, using the Area Solar Radiation tool will provide you this flexibility in the meantime.  The solar insolation values calculated should not be significantly different between the two tools.  Please note that the *.crf format is used to support the multidimensional raster output which provides time series (slices) results for each specified interval over the entire time configuration.   What issues you are seeing here? Kind regards, -Ryan ... View more

Hi @GBacon glad you are having some success.  "Why does the output of a mean summary statistic from the multidimensional toolbar produce a .crf if different dates are no longer present?" The result of the summary statistics is an aggregated output and we maintain the consistency of the output format as a multidimensional raster, even though as you mentioned the data has only one result (mean values) from all time slices.  This does also help to make clear the properties of the data from the analysis. The result .crf should not be any different or affect any subsequent use.    Note: You can run similar results using the GP tool Aggregate Multidimensional Raster (also found in the MD ribbon) where the result may differ in the number (count) of output slices. Hope this helps.   ... View more

Hi @robertkalasek , thanks for the post.  It is important to note that the original Solar radiation tools are not multi-core / multithread and will run on a single core.  So having  more (24) cores will not be an advantage here.  At what portion during the analysis you are seeing the performance metrics I am not sure. Not sure what the comparison to the older machine is or what the difference is there. With the new Solar Radiation tools available in ArcGIS Pro 3.2, these tools will use all available cores and if you have an available GPU will benefit significantly.  Even running CPU only mode one would benefit from the new implementation of the tool compared to the original. Little additional details.  In CPU mode only  all cores will be occupied, but when in GPU mode only 2-3 cores will be used to handle the processing that is required.  So with a good GPU card and the machine above you should have much improved processing performance and scalability. We are additionally working on performance improvements for the new tools for the next release 3.3 for CPU and GPU processing. ... View more

Hi there,  those sources you mention look to be from satellite data, where as the the solar radiation analysis tools calculate insolation from the input surface or for a specific locations, based on methods from the hemispherical viewshed algorithm. Here are some related help topics for the tools.  Hope this helps. How solar radiation is calculated Understanding solar radiation analysis -Ryan ... View more

Depending on what you are trying to answer.  One other option would be to run the Area Solar Radiation tool without a mask and run Zonal Statistics or Zonal Statistics as Table tool with your footprint as input zones to calculate the total/mean....etc for each building. The same would be true though in the rasterization of the input zones. ... View more

Thank you @robertkalasek for your post. The current solar radiation analysis tools are not designed as multithreaded or honor the parallel processing environment setting.  So yes have their known limitations. The larger the raster (or greater the input resolution) the longer the processing time and are recommended for smaller landscape scales (less than one degree).  This is something we are actively working on to release new versions of the Solar tools  hopefully in the next release of ArcGIS Pro.   This will include support for larger processing areas, along with performance and algorithm improvements, multithread and GPU support.   We hope to have these new tools in your hands as soon as possible.   In the mean time keep the communication open and let us know any specific questions or issues you have. Kind regards, -Ryan DeBruyn ... View more

Hi there,  not sure if you saw the usage tips from the help: The diffuse proportion is the fraction of global normal radiation flux that is diffuse. Values range from 0 to 1. This value should be set according to atmospheric conditions. Typical values are 0.2 for very clear sky conditions and 0.3 for generally clear sky conditions. The amount of solar radiation received by the surface is only a portion of what would be received outside the atmosphere. Transmittivity is a property of the atmosphere that is expressed as the ratio of the energy (averaged overall wavelengths) reaching the earth's surface to that which is received at the upper limit of the atmosphere (extraterrestrial). Values range from 0 (no transmission) to 1 (complete transmission). Typically observed values are 0.6 or 0.7 for very clear sky conditions and 0.5 for a generally clear sky. Finding or identifying best values for your area of interest depends on a number of variables (location and time).  You can decide which values best suit your model or you can either change these values to compare how they affect your result.   For example, if you are running analysis in downtown Los Angeles in the middle of summer you may want to consider additional atmospheric effects. hope this helps ... View more