Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Surface albedo spatial variability in North America: Gridded data vs. local measurements

Abstract

Considering the current booming interest for the large-scale deployment of bifacial photovoltaic modules, the solar industry now requires accurate estimates of broadband surface albedo at high spatial resolution. In this context, the present study evaluates the adequacy and performance over North America of two Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) white-sky albedo products (at 500-m and 1-km resolution) and the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) product at 4-km resolution. Two variations of the 500-m MODIS product are also considered: black-sky albedo and all-sky albedo. Albedo observations from 36 radiometric stations during 2011–2015 are analyzed while considering the apparent homogeneity of the surface characteristics over the 4x4 km NSRDB pixel in which they are located. Even at sites where the albedo around the station has been found “homogeneous” in the literature, marked differences are found between the daily observations and the gridded estimates at any spatial resolution. Furthermore, differences in seasonal behavior and between the three different albedo types also impact the accuracy of the albedo estimates, with overtones caused by local specificities and inhomogeneities. All this precludes the desirable evaluation of the local albedo at a specific site of relatively small size compared to its corresponding 4x4-km pixel if only themore » mean albedo over that pixel is known. Significant discrepancies are also found at snow-impacted sites, most importantly in the case of the NSRDB albedo estimates, which are typically much too high.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [3]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Solar Consulting Services, Colebrook, NH (United States)
  2. Solargis s.r.o., Bratislava (Slovakia)
  3. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Publication Date:
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:
1821613
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5D00-77988
Journal ID: ISSN 0038-092X; MainId:31897;UUID:dbf7ad36-40cf-47f5-acf3-a1c901a01b28;MainAdminID:24529
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC36-08GO28308; EE0007673
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Solar Energy
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 227; Journal ID: ISSN 0038-092X
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
14 SOLAR ENERGY; gridded data; local measurements; National Solar Radiation Database; North America; NRSRD; spatial variability; surface albedo

Citation Formats

Gueymard, Christian A., Lara-Fanego, Vicente, Sengupta, Manajit, and Habte, Aron. Surface albedo spatial variability in North America: Gridded data vs. local measurements. United States: N. p., 2021. Web. doi:10.1016/j.solener.2021.05.012.
Copy to clipboard
Gueymard, Christian A., Lara-Fanego, Vicente, Sengupta, Manajit, & Habte, Aron. Surface albedo spatial variability in North America: Gridded data vs. local measurements. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2021.05.012
Copy to clipboard
Gueymard, Christian A., Lara-Fanego, Vicente, Sengupta, Manajit, and Habte, Aron. Fri . "Surface albedo spatial variability in North America: Gridded data vs. local measurements". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2021.05.012. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1821613.
Copy to clipboard
@article{osti_1821613,
title = {Surface albedo spatial variability in North America: Gridded data vs. local measurements},
author = {Gueymard, Christian A. and Lara-Fanego, Vicente and Sengupta, Manajit and Habte, Aron},
abstractNote = {Considering the current booming interest for the large-scale deployment of bifacial photovoltaic modules, the solar industry now requires accurate estimates of broadband surface albedo at high spatial resolution. In this context, the present study evaluates the adequacy and performance over North America of two Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) white-sky albedo products (at 500-m and 1-km resolution) and the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) product at 4-km resolution. Two variations of the 500-m MODIS product are also considered: black-sky albedo and all-sky albedo. Albedo observations from 36 radiometric stations during 2011–2015 are analyzed while considering the apparent homogeneity of the surface characteristics over the 4x4 km NSRDB pixel in which they are located. Even at sites where the albedo around the station has been found “homogeneous” in the literature, marked differences are found between the daily observations and the gridded estimates at any spatial resolution. Furthermore, differences in seasonal behavior and between the three different albedo types also impact the accuracy of the albedo estimates, with overtones caused by local specificities and inhomogeneities. All this precludes the desirable evaluation of the local albedo at a specific site of relatively small size compared to its corresponding 4x4-km pixel if only the mean albedo over that pixel is known. Significant discrepancies are also found at snow-impacted sites, most importantly in the case of the NSRDB albedo estimates, which are typically much too high.},
doi = {10.1016/j.solener.2021.05.012},
journal = {Solar Energy},
number = ,
volume = 227,
place = {United States},
year = {2021},
month = {7}
}
Copy to clipboard
Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2021.05.012
Copyright Statement
Other availability
Search WorldCat Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Save / Share:
Export Metadata
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.

Works referenced in this record:

SURFRAD—A National Surface Radiation Budget Network for Atmospheric Research
journal, October 2000

A comparison of ray tracing and view factor simulations of locally resolved rear irradiance with the experimental values
journal, March 2020

  • Berrian, Djaber; Libal, Joris
  • Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 28, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1002/pip.3261

The Concept of Essential Climate Variables in Support of Climate Research, Applications, and Policy
journal, September 2014

  • Bojinski, Stephan; Verstraete, Michel; Peterson, Thomas C.
  • Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 95, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00047.1

Estimating the effective spatial resolution of the operational BRDF, albedo, and nadir reflectance products from MODIS and VIIRS
journal, March 2016

Perturbation of the northern hemisphere radiative balance by backscattering from anthropogenic sulfate aerosols
journal, January 1991

  • Charlson, R. J.; Langner, J.; Rodhe, H.
  • Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography, Vol. 43, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.3402/tellusa.v43i4.11944

Simulating the energy yield of a bifacial photovoltaic power plant
journal, May 2019

The Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 surface reflectance data set
journal, December 2018

50 Per cent more output power from an albedo-collecting flat panel using bifacial solar cells
journal, January 1982

Extended model for irradiation suitable for large bifacial PV power plants
journal, October 2019

Developing a spatially continuous 1 km surface albedo data set over North America from Terra MODIS products
journal, January 2007

  • Fang, Hongliang; Liang, Shunlin; Kim, Hye-Yun
  • Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 112, Issue D20
  • DOI: 10.1029/2006JD008377

Fast Super-Resolution of 20 m Sentinel-2 Bands Using Convolutional Neural Networks
journal, November 2019

  • Gargiulo, Massimiliano; Mazza, Antonio; Gaetano, Raffaele
  • Remote Sensing, Vol. 11, Issue 22
  • DOI: 10.3390/rs11222635

Intra-annual reflectance composites from Sentinel-2 and Landsat for national-scale crop and land cover mapping
journal, January 2019

Long-term spatial and temporal solar resource variability over America using the NSRDB version 3 (1998–2017)
journal, December 2020

  • Habte, Aron; Sengupta, Manajit; Gueymard, Christian
  • Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 134
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2020.110285

Estimation of surface albedo and directional reflectance from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations
journal, April 2012

The importance of correct albedo determination for adequately modeling energy received by tilted surfaces
journal, January 1987

A simulation model of the irradiation and energy yield of large bifacial photovoltaic plants
journal, August 2020

Preliminary assessment of 20-m surface albedo retrievals from sentinel-2A surface reflectance and MODIS/VIIRS surface anisotropy measures
journal, November 2018

Validating MODIS land surface reflectance and albedo products: methods and preliminary results
journal, November 2002

Retrieval of Land Surface Albedo from Satellite Observations: A Simulation Study
journal, June 1999

An Automated Quality Assessment and Control Algorithm for Surface Radiation Measurements
journal, April 2008

Preliminary Comparison of Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 Imagery for a Combined Use
journal, December 2016

  • Mandanici, Emanuele; Bitelli, Gabriele
  • Remote Sensing, Vol. 8, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.3390/rs8121014

Optimal Measurement of Surface Shortwave Irradiance Using Current Instrumentation
journal, January 1999

On the backscattering of global radiation by the sky
journal, January 1965

Rear‐side spectral irradiance at 1 sun and application to bifacial module power rating
journal, March 2020

  • Monokroussos, Christos; Gao, Qi; Zhang, XiaoYu
  • Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 28, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1002/pip.3268

Accuracy of simulated data for bifacial systems with varying tilt angles and share of diffuse radiation
journal, February 2020

Coupling Diffuse Sky Radiation and Surface Albedo
journal, July 2005

  • Pinty, Bernard; Lattanzio, Alessio; Martonchik, John V.
  • Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 62, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1175/JAS3479.1

Direct-Estimation Algorithm for Mapping Daily Land-Surface Broadband Albedo From MODIS Data
journal, February 2014

  • Qu, Ying; Liu, Qiang; Liang, Shunlin
  • IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 52, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2013.2245670

Global Techno-Economic Performance of Bifacial and Tracking Photovoltaic Systems
journal, July 2020

Assessing the coupling between surface albedo derived from MODIS and the fraction of diffuse skylight over spatially-characterized landscapes
journal, April 2010

  • Román, Miguel O.; Schaaf, Crystal B.; Lewis, Philip
  • Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 114, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2009.11.014

The MODIS (Collection V005) BRDF/albedo product: Assessment of spatial representativeness over forested landscapes
journal, November 2009

  • Román, Miguel O.; Schaaf, Crystal B.; Woodcock, Curtis E.
  • Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 113, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2009.07.009

A bidirectional reflectance model of the Earth's surface for the correction of remote sensing data
journal, January 1992

  • Roujean, Jean-Louis; Leroy, Marc; Deschamps, Pierre-Yves
  • Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 97, Issue D18
  • DOI: 10.1029/92JD01411

A Surface Albedo Product at High Spatial Resolution from a Combination of Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 Observations
conference, July 2018

  • Roujean, Jean-Louis; Olioso, Albert; Ceschia, Eric
  • IGARSS 2018 - 2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium
  • DOI: 10.1109/IGARSS.2018.8517279

Super-Resolution of Sentinel-2 Imagery Using Generative Adversarial Networks
journal, July 2020

  • Salgueiro Romero, Luis; Marcello, Javier; Vilaplana, Verónica
  • Remote Sensing, Vol. 12, Issue 15
  • DOI: 10.3390/rs12152424

Validation of the MODIS bidirectional reflectance distribution function and albedo retrievals using combined observations from the aqua and terra platforms
journal, June 2006

  • Salomon, J. G.; Schaaf, C. B.; Strahler, A. H.
  • IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 44, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2006.871564

First operational BRDF, albedo nadir reflectance products from MODIS
journal, November 2002

The National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB)
journal, June 2018

Harmonizing Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2: A time-series-based reflectance adjustment approach
journal, December 2019

Deep learning-based fusion of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 images for a harmonized surface reflectance product
journal, December 2019

Intercomparison of Surface Albedo Retrievals from MISR, MODIS, CGLS Using Tower and Upscaled Tower Measurements
journal, March 2019

  • Song, Rui; Muller, Jan-Peter; Kharbouche, Said
  • Remote Sensing, Vol. 11, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.3390/rs11060644

Evaluation of the global MODIS 30 arc-second spatially and temporally complete snow-free land surface albedo and reflectance anisotropy dataset
journal, June 2017

  • Sun, Qingsong; Wang, Zhuosen; Li, Zhan
  • International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, Vol. 58
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.jag.2017.01.011

Data Service Platform for Sentinel-2 Surface Reflectance and Value-Added Products: System Use and Examples
journal, November 2016

  • Vuolo, Francesco; Żółtak, Mateusz; Pipitone, Claudia
  • Remote Sensing, Vol. 8, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.3390/rs8110938

Estimating daily mean land surface albedo from MODIS data: ESTIMATING DAILY MEAN ALBEDO FROM MODIS
journal, May 2015

  • Wang, Dongdong; Liang, Shunlin; He, Tao
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 120, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1002/2015JD023178

Capturing rapid land surface dynamics with Collection V006 MODIS BRDF/NBAR/Albedo (MCD43) products
journal, March 2018

The use of variograms in remote sensing: I. Scene models and simulated images
journal, August 1988

  • Woodcock, Curtis E.; Strahler, Alan H.; Jupp, David L. B.
  • Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 25, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1016/0034-4257(88)90108-3

The use of variograms in remote sensing: II. Real digital images
journal, August 1988

  • Woodcock, Curtis E.; Strahler, Alan H.; Jupp, David L. B.
  • Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 25, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1016/0034-4257(88)90109-5

Accuracy Assessment on MODIS (V006), GLASS and MuSyQ Land-Surface Albedo Products: A Case Study in the Heihe River Basin, China
journal, December 2018

  • Wu, Xiaodan; Wen, Jianguang; Xiao, Qing
  • Remote Sensing, Vol. 10, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.3390/rs10122045

Solar radiation on inclined surfaces: Corrections and benchmarks
journal, October 2016

    Sort by:
    [ × clear filter / sort ]

    Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections: