Comparison of a National Weather Service Foster sunshine recorder and the World Meteorological Organization standard for sunshine duration

Journal Article · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Solar Energy (Journal of Solar Energy Science and Engineering); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0038-092X(92)90041-8· OSTI ID:5069184

Michalsky, J J ^[1]

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1. State Univ. of New York, Albany (United States)

A National Weather Service (NWS) Foster sunshine recorder at the Albany, New York, airport is compared with direct solar radiation measurements at the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC). A daily percent sunshine record, generated from the ASRC data at thresholds of 210, 120, and 84 W/m{sup 2}, generally indicates lower values than the airport sunshine recorder. As the threshold is lowered, the clearday agreement improves, but the airport cloudy-day sunshine is higher for all threshold values. The most probable cause of the discrepancy is the tendency for the airport sunshine recorder to become activated under bright skylight even though direct irradiance is below the threshold. Using either the airport or the ASRC daily sunshine record to predict daily global horizontal radiation results in linear relationships, but with different coefficients. The error in predicted daily global horizontal radiation is 8.8% and 14.6% for the ASRC and airport data, respectively. Satellite data can predict daily global horizontal radiation to about 14%, suggesting that little is to be gained from a ground-based measurement of percent sunshine.

• OSTI ID: 5069184
• Journal Information: Solar Energy (Journal of Solar Energy Science and Engineering); (United States), Journal Name: Solar Energy (Journal of Solar Energy Science and Engineering); (United States) Vol. 48:2; ISSN SRENA; ISSN 0038-092X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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