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Acronymes and Useful Vocabulary

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of terminology ?
Consult the Education service.

 

Satellite SoDa Solar radiation Data. website / Service.
MSG Meteosat Second Generation satellites. Images of origin of the data.
IR Infra Red
WV Water Vapor
HC HelioClim. Databases
Radiation au Astronomical Unit: averaged sun-earth distance ≈ 149 597 871 km.
Esc Solar Constant = 1367 W/m². Solar energy received by a surface normal to sun rays, located at the top of the atmosphere, and at a distance of 1 au.
E0 Extraterrestrial Irradiance on the normal plane. Solar energy received by a surface normal to sun rays, located at the top of the atmosphere at a given date. It is a function of Esc and of the instantaneous sun-earth distance.
GHI Global Horizontal Irradiation
DNI Direct Normal Incidence or Direct Normal Irradiation
ToA Top of Atmosphere. Solar radiation received by a horizontal surface located at the top of the atmosphere.
Kt Clearness Index = GHI/E0
Kc Clearsky Index = GHI/GHIclearsky
Kd Kd = DHI/GHI
TMY Typical Mean Year: a one-year time series of hourly parameters (irradiation, temperature, wind speed...) which should be representative of the x years (x=10, 15, or 20 years...) of data available.
P50 Percentil 50%: for example, in a population of 100 people from 1 to 100 years old, and if George is 50 years old, he will be the percentil 50%, i.e. the person dividing the population of ages in two identical groups of 50 people.
P90 Percentil 90%: in the same example as above, if Jane is 10 years old, she will be the percentil 90 of this group since 90% of the people has more than 10 years old.
Time UT Universal Time
TST True Solar Time
MST Mean Solar Time
- time step
- frequency
- summarization
- period of observation
- period of integration
- duration of observation
All these terms mean the time step of the retrieved data: monthly, daily, hourly or 15 minute data.
Atmosphere Tl Linke Turbidity factor - parameter which gives an information on the nebulosity of the atmosphere
Tools GIS Geographical Information System
PVGIS PhotoVoltaique Geographical Information System
IT Information Technology
FAI Fournisseur Accès Internet
Organisations OME Opérateurs des Métiers de l'Environnement (Paris)
JRC
NOAA
NCEP
IEA International Energy Agency
GEO
GEOSS

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