A Fast All-sky Radiation Model for Solar applications with Narrowband Irradiances on Tilted surfaces (FARMS-NIT): Part II. The cloudy-sky model

Xie, Yu; Sengupta, Manajit; Wang, Chenxi

doi:10.1016/j.solener.2019.06.058

Title: A Fast All-sky Radiation Model for Solar applications with Narrowband Irradiances on Tilted surfaces (FARMS-NIT): Part II. The cloudy-sky model

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Abstract

The Fast All-sky Radiation Model for Solar applications with Narrowband Irradiances on Tilted surfaces (FARMS-NIT) reported in Part I of this report is enhanced to include the requirements for cloudy-sky conditions. Surface radiances in 2002 narrow-wavelength bands from 0.28 to 4.0 um are analytically computed by solving the radiative transfer equation for five independent photon paths accounting for clear-sky absorption, Rayleigh scattering, and cloud absorption and scattering. The Simple Model of the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer of Sunshine (SMARTS) is used to show the optical thickness of the clear-sky atmosphere. Unlike Part I, which approximates the computation of aerosol scattering using the single-scattering phase function, the cloud transmittance and reflectance are efficiently retrieved from a comprehensive look-up table pre-computed by a 32-stream DIScrete Ordinates Radiative Transfer (DISORT) model for possible cloud conditions as well as solar and viewing geometries. A resolution assessment is performed to observe the optimal balance between the computational efficiency and accuracy in the development of the look-up table. Model simulations by DISORT and TMYSPEC are used to evaluate the performance of FARMS-NIT under cloudy-sky conditions. Compared to DISORT, FARMS-NIT yields 2-3% uncertainties on average, but it substantially reduces the computational time because of the independent computation ofmore »« less

Authors:

Xie, Yu ^[1];

^[1]; Wang, Chenxi ^[2]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States); NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)

Publication Date:: 2019-07-01

Research Org.:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office

OSTI Identifier:: 1545586

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1776201

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5D00-73326
Journal ID: ISSN 0038-092X

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Solar Energy

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 188; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0038-092X

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY; radiative transfer; cloud; solar radiation; satellite remote sensing; solar resource assessment; numerical weather prediction

Citation Formats


                    Xie, Yu, Sengupta, Manajit, and Wang, Chenxi. A Fast All-sky Radiation Model for Solar applications with Narrowband Irradiances on Tilted surfaces (FARMS-NIT): Part II. The cloudy-sky model.  United States: N. p., 2019. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/j.solener.2019.06.058.

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                    Xie, Yu, Sengupta, Manajit, & Wang, Chenxi. A Fast All-sky Radiation Model for Solar applications with Narrowband Irradiances on Tilted surfaces (FARMS-NIT): Part II. The cloudy-sky model.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.06.058

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                    Xie, Yu, Sengupta, Manajit, and Wang, Chenxi. Mon .  
"A Fast All-sky Radiation Model for Solar applications with Narrowband Irradiances on Tilted surfaces (FARMS-NIT): Part II. The cloudy-sky model".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.06.058.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1545586.

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@article{osti_1545586,

  title        = {A Fast All-sky Radiation Model for Solar applications with Narrowband Irradiances on Tilted surfaces (FARMS-NIT): Part II. The cloudy-sky model},

  author       = {Xie, Yu and Sengupta, Manajit and Wang, Chenxi},

  abstractNote = {The Fast All-sky Radiation Model for Solar applications with Narrowband Irradiances on Tilted surfaces (FARMS-NIT) reported in Part I of this report is enhanced to include the requirements for cloudy-sky conditions. Surface radiances in 2002 narrow-wavelength bands from 0.28 to 4.0 um are analytically computed by solving the radiative transfer equation for five independent photon paths accounting for clear-sky absorption, Rayleigh scattering, and cloud absorption and scattering. The Simple Model of the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer of Sunshine (SMARTS) is used to show the optical thickness of the clear-sky atmosphere. Unlike Part I, which approximates the computation of aerosol scattering using the single-scattering phase function, the cloud transmittance and reflectance are efficiently retrieved from a comprehensive look-up table pre-computed by a 32-stream DIScrete Ordinates Radiative Transfer (DISORT) model for possible cloud conditions as well as solar and viewing geometries. A resolution assessment is performed to observe the optimal balance between the computational efficiency and accuracy in the development of the look-up table. Model simulations by DISORT and TMYSPEC are used to evaluate the performance of FARMS-NIT under cloudy-sky conditions. Compared to DISORT, FARMS-NIT yields 2-3% uncertainties on average, but it substantially reduces the computational time because of the independent computation of cloud properties and the implementation of the look-up table. In contrast to TMYSPEC, which uses successive steps to empirically compute plane-of-array (POA) irradiances and spectral irradiances, FARMS-NIT directly solves spectral radiances from the radiative transfer equation, which profoundly increases the accuracy in surface irradiances, especially over inclined photovoltaics (PV) panels.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.solener.2019.06.058},

  journal      = {Solar Energy},

  number       = C,

  volume       = 188,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2019},

  month        = {7}

}

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