Accuracy of the Solar radiation tool

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01-12-2016 01:46 AM
AndreasRechenmacher
New Contributor

Hello community,

for my master-thesis among other things I plan to work with the Solar radiation tool (10.3).

In the paper "A comparative analysis of DEM-based models to estimate the solar radiation in mountainous terrain - Ruiz-Arias et al (2009)" I saw that there is maybe a not satisfying accuracy of the tool. Solar irradiance was underestimated, especially on days with a low clearness-index.

Did anybody make experiences in this regard? Or was the tool revised since than maybe?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Andreas Rechenmacher

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4 Replies
LukeSturtevant
Occasional Contributor III

I cannot find a free version of the paper you cited, but the abstract seems to claim that they were able to calculate standard errors of prediction by comparing the modeled solar radiation with the observed solar radiation data. Is this correct? With any modeling technique you really should have a way to calculate the errors associated with the type of study you are doing. Have you looked through the GIS help pages for Solar Radiation ? There is a big list of articles in the reference section that may be very useful for you.

AndreasRechenmacher
New Contributor

Yes this is correct.
The standard errors on the ArcGis model where quite high under some circumstances.

Thank you for the hint. The reference works are mostly from the year 2000 or younger so maybe Esri did some upgrades, who knows

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DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

Google some of the literature.  Since you are with an academic institution, you probably have free access to documents at your uni (ie Science Direct and the like) because of license agreements with journals and publisher.  Check it out and save yourself some cash...but you may have to go to school to get access...(the sacrifices you make ).

At least one free publication with some references and a model for a particular application should get you started.

http://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/4/2/195/pdf

with the caveat that any model is only going to be as good as the parameterization of your atmospheric conditions.

AndreasRechenmacher
New Contributor

Thank you too for your help.

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