Identity card of HC1
| HELIOCLIM-1 Identity Card |
| Producer |
MINES ParisTech - Armines (France) |
| Method |
HelioSat-2 |
| Covered area |
from -66° to 66° both in latitude and longitude. |
| Covered period
|
January 1985 - December 2005 |
| Spatial resolution |
approx. 20*20 km² |
| Temporal resolution |
Daily |
| Plane orientation |
Horizontal |
| Pay / free |
free (click here to access the data) |
| Access |
Through the website only. However, an automatic access to the data is granted with every annual subscription to the HelioClim3 database (smallest annual subscription price: HCmonth 1000 €). |
| Standard Data File |
.csv |
| PVsyst compatible |
yes |
|
Major paper on HelioClim-1: Lefèvre M., Wald L., Diabaté L., 2007. Using reduced data sets ISCCP-B2 from the Meteosat satellites to assess surface solar irradiance. Solar Energy, 81, 240-253.
Default elevation database: the default elevation database is TerrainBase 5’ for the HC1 database. No correction in height is performed during a HC1 request.
Advertisement: see how HC1 contribute to GEOSS.
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HC1 Services
Services: HC# stands for the HelioClim database name + time step + plane orientation (default: horizontal)
HC1month: HelioClim1 monthly irradiation values over a horizontal plane.
HC1week: HelioClim1 weekly irradiation values over a horizontal plane.
HC1day: HelioClim1 daily irradiation values over a horizontal plane.
HC1monthDNI: HelioClim1 monthly irradiation values over a normal plane.
More information on the origin of the data and the different services:
1_ The services over the horizontal plane: at the date when the HelioClim1 database were built, the Meteosat images needed to be purchased and were not provided for free to Universities at it was the case several years later. As it represented a hue amount of data at that time, Mines ParisTech could not afford this fee. Moreover, its capacity of data storage was limited. They took the decision not to purchase the full spatial and temporal resolution of Meteosat (30 min data, 2.5 km). They chose 1 image in 6, and one pixel on 6 leading to a final resolution of approximately 20 km. The images collected every 3 hour were used to compute the daily HelioClim1 irradiation values (HC1day).
2_ The service HCmonthDNI: at the origin, the HelioClim1 data are only available with a daily time step and over the horizontal plane. To obtain the data over an inclined or a normal surface, the algorithm of Collares-Peirera and Rabl is used as a first step. Then a model is applied to obtain the components of the radiation over the normal surface, before aggregation to obtain the monthly values.
Output column content: description of the content of the columns for each service.
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Uncertainty of HC1
Results of the comparisons have been published (see articles). They are used to compute the uncertainty that is delivered with each radiation value.
Quality assessment was performed using comparisons with measurements of the WMO radiometric network in Europe and Middle East (80 sites) and Africa (75 sites) for the period 1985-2005. See graphs for:
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HelioClim-1 successive versions
| Version Number |
Date |
Comments |
| 4.0 |
9 March 2006 |
Corrects for the defects mentioned above. The database was reconstructed.
Results are close to those of Version 3, except for places mentioned above. |
| 3.0 |
4 March 2005 |
Corrects for the defects 1 and 2 mentioned above. The database was reconstructed.
Version 3.1 contains a new format of the outputs.
In January 2005, error in navigation was discovered in original Meteosat images. This leads to strong errors in places close to marked orographic features, such as coastlines, especially those bordering deserts, or mountains. |
| 2.1 |
21 Jan 2005 |
Known defects:
1. Spatial discontinuity of the radiation field off the coasts of Senegal
2. Too low values for the Eastern half of the Arabian Peninsula
3. Too low values for Northern latitudes ( > 50° N) |
|
Missing values
| Year |
Missing HC1 daily values |
| 1985 |
Apr. 12, 13th
July 29, 30, 31st
Aug. 6 and 7th
Nov. 21st
Dec. 20th |
| 1986 |
Feb. 3 and 24th
May 14th
Full month of July
Nov. 25th
Dec. 1st |
| 1987 |
Mar. 29, 30, 31st
Apr. 22nd
Dec 11, 18th |
| 1988 |
May from 8 to 31st
July 18th
Oct. from 3 to 31st
Nov. 15th
Dec 20, 21st |
| 1989 |
Jan. 31th
Feb. 1st
June 6
Dec 5, 6, 7th |
| 1990 |
Jan 2nd |
| 1992 |
Nov. 28th |
| 1993 |
Feb. 17th
Aug. 14th |
| 1996 |
Jan. 3rd |
| 1999 |
Nov. 21st |
| 2000 |
Jan. 17, 18, 19th
Apr. 1st
Nov 14th |
| 2005 |
Mar. 31st |
|
Last update: 4/5/12 6:50 PM