Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 130-131 (2015) 81–88

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Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jastp

Research Paper

Solar global horizontal and direct normal irradiation maps in Spain

derived from geostationary satellites
J. Polo n
Renewable Energy Division (Energy Department), CIEMAT, Avda. Complutense 40, 28040 Madrid, Spain

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Solar radiation derived from satellite imagery is a powerful and highly accurate technique for solar re-
Received 4 February 2015 source assessment due to its maturity and to the long term database of observation images available. This
Received in revised form work presents the methodology developed at CIEMAT for mapping solar radiation from geostationary
22 May 2015
satellite information and it also shows solar irradiation maps of global horizontal and direct normal
Accepted 23 May 2015
Available online 29 May 2015
components elaborated for Spain. The maps presented here have been developed from daily solar irra-
diation estimated for eleven years of satellite images (2001–2011). An attempt to evaluate the un-
Keywords: certainty of the presented maps is made using ground measurements from 27 meteorological stations
Solar resource assessment available in Spain for global horizontal irradiation obtained from the World Radiation Data Centre. In the
Solar radiation derived from satellites
case of direct normal irradiation the ground measurement database was scarce, having available only six
Solar irradiation mapping
ground stations with measurements for a period of 4 years. Yearly values of global horizontal irradiation
are around 1800 kWh m
2 in most of the country and around 1950–2000 kWh m
2 for annual direct
normal irradiation. Root mean square errors in monthly means were of 11% and of 29% for global hor-
izontal and direct normal irradiation, respectively.
& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction consequence, solar radiation derived from satellite raises as a

Accurate knowledge of solar irradiance components at the
Earth's surface is an important issue in many scientific and tech-
nology branches related to energy, environment, climate, archi-
tecture and agriculture. In the specific case of solar energy systems
to produce electricity the accurate solar resource analysis is a first
step in every project since it is required for design, power output
estimations, and decision making. Delivering site-specific solar
resource information for a particular solar energy application in
every step of a solar energy deployment project is generally de-
noted as Solar Resource Assessment. Solar irradiation mapping is an
important issue towards exploring the spatial variability of solar
radiation, analyzing the solar energy potential in a country and
helping the decision making for deployment of solar energy sys-
tems (Kanters et al., 2014).
Global hemispherical irradiance on horizontal surface is widely
recorded through many ground stations worldwide, the World
Radiation Data Centre has available data from a large number of
stations organized by countries. However, in most of the cases
such measuring networks do not offer enough density to provide
information on the spatial variability of the solar radiation. In
n
Corresponding author. Fax: þ 34 913466037.
E-mail address: jesus.polo@ciemat.es
useful and accurate tool for solar resource analysis and for sup-
plying solar irradiance time series as well (Hoyer-Klick et al., 2009;
Vignola et al., 2007; Zelenka et al., 1999). Since its origins in the
early 80s, the methods for computing solar radiation components
from geostationary satellites have evolved a lot incorporating ex-
perience, improvements and new developments; many studies are
available on this topic from the first ones developed in the 80s
(Cano et al., 1986; Gautier et al., 1980; Moser and Raschke, 1983)
until nowadays (Mueller et al., 2004; Perez et al., 2002; Rigollier
et al., 2004; Schillings et al., 2004). An overview of the funda-
mentals of some of the most currently used methods can be found
in (Polo et al., 2008). The geostationary satellites network can
deliver images at least every hour for complete observation of the
atmosphere–earth system since the early 90s.
Satellites observing the earth–atmosphere system receive part
of the incident radiation coming from the Sun. The interaction of
solar radiation with the atmospheric constituents occurs through
two mechanisms, absorption and scattering, yielding to the at-
tenuation of part of the incident solar radiation. As a consequence
of such interaction the components of solar radiation can be di-
vided in two groups: the incident components formed by diffuse
and direct normal irradiance, and the emergent components
formed, within the spectral range of the incident solar radiation,
by the backscattered radiation from atmosphere and the reflected
by ground or clouds.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2015.05.015
1364-6826/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
82 J. Polo / Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 130-131 (2015) 81–88
Basically, a satellite image, in the visible channel, is a measure
of the upwelling shortwave radiance traveling from the earth–at-
mosphere system at a specific time and over a spatial window (the
emergent components of solar radiation). By using the proper
calibration constant the information contained in the image can be
transformed into radiance values. The radiance values at the image
are strongly correlated with the state of the atmosphere (from
clear sky situations to complete overcast), and in a lesser extent
with the reflectance of the ground surface. In this sense, satellite
images give spatial information on the cloud distribution and
thickness. Thus they are able to reproduce most of the variability
associated to cloud attenuation of solar radiation by establishing a
relationship between the cloud index (as estimator of cloudiness)
and clear sky index (as estimator of surface solar irradiance).
Meteorological satellites can be separated into two main
groups according to their orbit: polar orbiting and geostationary
satellites (Grüter et al. 1986); Hay, 1993a; Hay, 1993b). Polar or-
biting satellites observe the earth from about 800 km, and they
have high spatial resolution but limited temporal coverage (they
cover a specific viewing region one or two times every day).
Geostationary satellites, having an orbit of 36,000 km, can achieve
temporal resolutions of up to 15 min for full disk High-resolution
visible images and even every 5 min for MSG images over parts of
Europe, Africa and adjacent seas. On the other hand the spatial
resolution is up to 1 km. Most of the methods for deriving solar
radiation from satellite information use geostationary satellite
images, since they allow for continuous determination of cloud
cover information. Polar satellites are frequently used to derive
daily information of land characteristics and atmospheric com-
ponents (ozone, aerosol optical depth, water vapor, etc.) (Bilal
et al., 2013; Chesters and Neuendorffer, 1991; Kern et al., 2008;
McPeters and Stolarski, 2015).
This document describes the methodology developed at CIE-
MAT (Centre for Research on Energy, Environment and Technol-
ogy) for deriving solar radiation incident components from geos-
tationary satellites, and for mapping the global horizontal (GHI)
and direct normal (DNI) irradiation components. In particular, the
application of this methodology to Meteosat first and second
generation satellites images is exposed and solar radiation maps of
Spain computed from satellite information for the period of 2001–
2011 are presented.
2. Methodology
2.1. Cloud index and GHI computation
Hourly time series of global horizontal and direct normal irra-
diances were computed with the CIEMAT satellite model (Polo,
2009; Zarzalejo et al., 2009; Zarzalejo, 2005) which use the He-
liosat-2 (Rigollier et al., 2004) and the Heliosat-3 (Dagestad and
Olseth, 2007) as reference, and including several new proposals in
the ground albedo determination and in the aerosol information
that need the clear sky models as input.
For each satellite image, i.e. at every hour, global horizontal
irradiance is estimated by using a semi-empirical relationship for
the clear sky index (defined as the global irradiance normalized to
the clear sky global irradiance) as a function of the cloud index,
cloud index median and air mass (Zarzalejo et al., 2009),
Gh
kc = = 1.010 − 0.789 n + 0.153 n50 − 0.025 m
G hclear
where Gh and Ghclear are the global horizontal irradiance and the
global horizontal irradiance for clear sky conditions, respectively, n
is the cloud index, n50 is the median of the cloud index whole time
series (50th percentile) and m is the relative air mass.
The cloud index is estimated by normalizing the instantaneous
planetary albedo with the dynamic range,
ρ − ρg
n=
ρc − ρg (2)
being ρ the instantaneous planetary albedo (that is the reflectance
recorded at the sensor on board), and ρg and ρc the ground and
cloud albedo, respectively.
Instantaneous planetary albedo and ground albedo are com-
puted taking as reference the formulation of Heliosat-3, where the
backscattered radiation from the atmosphere, ratm, is computed so
that it can be removed from the measured albedo (Dagestad and
Olseth, 2007),
πL π ratm
ρ= −
εIμ cos θ I0 cos θ (3)
where L is the radiance measured on the satellite sensor, ε is the
eccentricity correction factor of earth, Iμ is solar irradiance of
Meteosat visible channel at the top of atmosphere, I0 is the solar
constant, and θ is the solar zenith angle.
The ground albedo is computed in Heliosat-3 approach as the
4-percentile of reflectivity after normalizing it by a shape function
that accounts for the ground albedo dependence on the co-scat-
tering angle (Dagestad and Olseth, 2007). However, in the CIEMAT
satellite approach the ground albedo is computed in a slightly
different way, since the function that governs the dependence
with co-scattering angle is dynamically and locally estimated for
each pixel allowing the determination of the different angular
dependence for the terrain as a function of its reflectivity (Polo
et al., 2012). A local shape function is defined, at every pixel, by
fitting a third order polynomial normalized with the independent
coefficient to ensure that f’(0)¼ 1.
⎛p ⎞ ⎛p ⎞ ⎛p ⎞
1
f ‵(Ψ ) = ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ Ψ 3 + ⎜⎜ 2 ⎟⎟ Ψ 2 + ⎜⎜ 3 ⎟⎟ Ψ + 1
⎝ p4 ⎠ ⎝ p4 ⎠ ⎝ p4 ⎠ (4)
where Ψ is the co-scattering angle defined as
cos Ψ = cos θ cos θ sat + sin θ sin θ sat cos (ϕ − ϕsat ) (5)
Thus the ground albedo is finally estimated by
ρg = ρ 4th (0) f (6)
Likewise, the cloud albedo can be estimated from Eq. (3) by
π ratm
ρc = ρ eff −
I0 cos θ (7)
where ρeff is the planetary albedo for overcast conditions that is
estimated by the following function of the solar elevation angle (α)
(Taylor and Stowe 1984),
ρ eff = 0.78 − 0.13 ⎡⎣1 − exp −4 sin5 α ⎤⎦
( ) (8)
2.2. Clear sky models and DNI computation
Clear sky solar irradiances (global hemispherical and direct
normal) can be computed in this methodology using three possi-
ble clear sky transmittance models: European Solar Radiation Atlas
ESRA (Rigollier et al., 2000), Solis model (Ineichen 2008a; Mueller
et al., 2004) and REST2 model (Gueymard, 2008). The clear sky
(1)
models used here have different requirements for the input con-
cerning the attenuation of solar radiation, and this was the main
reason for implementing three different models. For modeling the
atmospheric extinction ESRA model merges all the attenuants,
 J. Polo / Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 130-131 (2015) 81–88
except Rayleigh scattering, in one unique parameter requiring only
the Linke turbidity factor as input. The Solis simplified model es-
timate the atmospheric transmittance under clear sky conditions
using as input the broadband aerosol optical depth and the water
vapor content. Finally, REST2 uses the Angstrom formula for the
attenuation due to atmospheric aerosols in two spectral bands and
it deals separately with the attenuation of water vapor, ozone and
NO2. The choice of the clear sky model to be used is made by the
user and depends on the availability of the atmospheric
information.
Direct normal irradiance is computed by a clear sky transmit-
tance model in cloudless conditions and by the Louche conversion
model (Louche et al., 1991) in cloudy and overcast situations. For
selection of the clear sky days an automatic algorithm has been
used that is based on the correlation between global horizontal
irradiance computed from satellite images by expression (1) and
global horizontal irradiance computed by the selected clear sky
model (Polo et al., 2009).
2.3. Sequence of the calculations
Hourly values of GHI and DNI have been estimated from Me-
teosat images using this methodology for the period from 01/01/
2001 to 31/12/2011 and processing 12 images per day. Meteosat
First generation images were used for 2001–2005, and Meteosat
Second Generation images were processed for 2006–2011. Differ-
ences between the two platforms are mainly higher spatial re-
solution in Meteosat second generation and higher radiometric
sensitivity of 10-bit images. The solar radiation values estimated
from 12 images per day correspond to the UTC time of the image
plus the scanning time of the sensor; after converting them to true
solar time (using the equation of time and the longitude correc-
tion) a cubic interpolation is then performed to estimating GHI
and DNI hourly values at 0–23 h in true solar time. Daily values of
aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 550 nm, Angstrom exponent and
water vapor column for the same period were taken from a grid-
ded database that combines MODIS (Moderate resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer), Terra satellite and Aqua (Acker and Leptoukh,
2007), C005 data collection. The high relevance of the use of daily
values of atmospheric component for estimating the atmospheric
attenuation under clear sky conditions has been remarked by
several authors (Cebecauer and Suri, 2010; Cebecauer and Suri,
2012; Cebecauer et al., 2011; Polo et al., 2011). The AOD at 550 nm
in the C005 collection data of MODIS have been assessed by dif-
ferent authors by comparing to the AERONET data, and good re-
sults have been reported (Papadimas et al., 2009). The spatial re-
solution of the MODIS gridded data with global coverage is 1°x1°.
The daily values of AOD at 550 nm and water vapor are used to
determine daily values of Linke turbidity factor by applying the
Ineichen expression (Ineichen, 2008b). At every hour ESRA model
is used to compute global horizontal irradiance for clear sky
(Ghclear) and direct normal irradiance for clear sky (Bnclear) using
the daily value of Linke turbidity factor.
Therefore, the sequence of computation of hourly GHI is as
follows:
1. For every image n is computed using expression (2), m is also
calculated, and Ghclear is estimated from ESRA model using the
corresponding daily value of the Linke turbidity factor.
2. For the whole set of cloud index values n50 is computed as the
50th percentile.
3. For every hour expression (1) is used to compute the clear sky
index and then the global horizontal irradiance, where the air
mass is estimated by the formula of (Kasten and Young, 1989).
4. Each day the hourly values of GHI for 0 to 23 h are calculated
from the 12 original hourly values by cubic interpolation.
83
5. Hourly DNI values are estimated from hourly GHI values using
the Louche model.
6. The specific algorithm for selection of clear sky conditions is
applied to each day and if the day is selected as clear sly all the
GHI and DNI values are replaced for those estimated from ESRA
clear sky model.
7. The final hourly values of GHI and DNI are used to compute
daily sums and monthly means values.
3. Solar radiation maps in Spain
The methodology for solar radiation estimation from Meteosat
imaging have been applied to generate daily sums of GHI and DNI,
for eleven years, in two raster regions with a spatial resolution of
0.1°. The first region comprises the Iberian Peninsula and the Ba-
learic Islands (35° to 44° North latitude and
10° to 5° East
longitude), and the second one covers the Canary Islands (27° to
30° North latitude and
19° to
13° East longitude). Solar Irra-
diation raster information has been processed in an open source
geographic information system, Quantum GIS (http://www.qgis.
org/), for generating the irradiation maps of Spain. The additional
cartographic information about maps with countries limits and
other attributes were obtained from Natural Earth public domain
map dataset (http://www.naturalearthdata.com/). Figs. 1 and 2
show the maps of average values of annual sums for daily GHI and
DNI, denoted as yearly average irradiation. Figs. 3 and 4 show the
12 maps of monthly mean daily irradiation for global horizontal
and direct normal, respectively. Annual GHI is placed in the range
of 1750–1850 kWh m
2 yr
1 in the south and middle of the
country, while in the north is in the range of 1600 kWh m
2 yr
1
and even lower in the Cantabrian coastal region. Annual DNI
reaches the range of 1900–2000 kWh m
2 yr
1 in the middle
south and it exhibits the highest values in Extremadura and An-
dalusia regions. Monthly means maps show the profile of solar
irradiation along the year, where the maximum values are found in
the summer (especially June, July and August months). In July the
monthly average of DNI reaches up to 10 kWh m
2 d
1 in parts of
Extremadura and Andalusia regions.
4. Assessment of uncertainty
Ground data of the Spanish radiometric network operated by
the Spanish Meteorology Agency (AEMet) have been used to
evaluate the uncertainty of solar radiation maps. Monthly means
of global horizontal and direct normal irradiation measured are
compared to those values extracted from the maps for several
stations. In the case of global horizontal irradiation data from 27
stations during the period 2001–2007 were used, and in the case
of direct normal only 6 stations for the period 2001–2004 were
available. Table 1 lists the stations involved in the assessment of
monthly means of GHI and it shows also the results of the un-
certainty parameters used; likewise, Table 2 shows the stations
and the uncertainty parameters for the monthly means of DNI. The
uncertainty parameters used here are the relative mean bias error
and the relative root mean squared error defined as,
rMBE = 100
1
N
∑
(Yexp − Ymod )
N Yexp
i=1
N
1 1 2
rRMSE = 100 ∑ (Yexp − Ymod )
Yexp N i=1 (9)
Yexp and Ymod are the measured and estimated value of the
84 J. Polo / Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 130-131 (2015) 81–88

Fig. 1. GHI yearly average (2001–2011) in Spain (kWh m
2 yr
1).

random variable, respectively, and N is the total number of points.
In general, the average result of the uncertainty is around 11% and
29% of rRMSE for GHI and DNI, respectively. It should be noted that
a low bias in the GHI estimations was found. The assessment of
DNI is not very accurate because of the scarce ground data
information freely available.
According to the results a general trend to overestimate the
monthly GHI is observed mostly in the stations of the north and
north-east, while some underestimation is observed for stations of
the east. In conclusion, for GHI monthly average estimations larger

Fig. 2. DNI yearly average (2001–2011) in Spain (kWh m
2 yr
1).

J. Polo / Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 130-131 (2015) 81–88 85

Fig. 3. GHI monthly means in Spain (kWh m
2 d
1).

86 J. Polo / Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 130-131 (2015) 81–88

Fig. 4. DNI monthly means in Spain (kWh m
2 d
1).

 J. Polo / Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 130-131 (2015) 81–88 87

Table 1 accurate mapping of the solar resource in a region (Cebecauer and

List of ground stations for evaluating global irradiation maps (Period 2001–2007) Suri, 2012; Mieslinger et al., 2014; Polo et al., 2015).
and results of the uncertainty parameters.

Station Longitude (°E) Latitude (°N) z (m) rMBE (%) rRMSE (%)
5. Conclusions
Santander
3.81 43.46 64
5.4 12.4
La Coruña
8.41 43.36 58
3.0 9.5
Solar irradiation maps of Spain for the global horizontal and
Bilbao
2.93 43.30 40
5.2 13.4
Villanova
8.75 42.60 15 1.4 8.7
direct normal components have been elaborated from raster in-
León
5.65 42.58 914
5.9 11.2 formation derived from Meteosat geostationary satellite. The
Logroño
2.33 42.45 353
5.3 12.6 methodology for mapping is based on a combination of heliosat-
Zaragoza
1.06 41.66 298 3.6 11.4 based approaches and some new improvements on different key
Valladolid
4.76 41.65 734
1.5 9.1
aspects of the chain of algorithms for solar radiation derived from
Lleida 0.60 41.61 201 4.7 13.9
Soria
2.50 41.60 1090
4.5 14.4 satellite imagery. The raster information obtained from the
Reus 1.16 41.15 73 1.1 13.6 method has been processed with Quantum GIS software package
Salamanca
5.91 40.95 803
4.4 13.3 for delivering the final maps of irradiation. Assessment of the
Madrid
3.71 40.45 664
0.3 10.3
uncertainty has been made by using 27 ground stations of global
Toledo
4.05 39.88 515
0.9 11.6
Palma 2.61 39.55 6 1.2 10.5
irradiation and only 6 with available measurements of DNI. Low
Cáceres
6.33 39.46 405
1.6 10.0 bias in average was found in GHI estimation (
0.4%) and an
Albacete
1.86 39.00 674
0.5 12.0 average error of 11% of RMSE for the monthly means; much higher
Ciudad Real
3.91 38.98 628
3.4 13.4 error, as expected, was found in the case of DNI (29% of RMSE)
Badajoz
7.01 38.88 185 0.5 9.0
although it should be remarked the scarcity of ground measure-
Ibiza 1.36 38.86 10
0.2 11.1
Alicante
0.55 38.28 31 4.1 13.0 ments for mapping assessment. Finally, the irradiation maps of
Murcia
1.16 38.00 61 4.2 11.1 monthly means and yearly average of GHI and DNI allows the
Huelva
6.91 37.28 19 0.2 3.3 analysis of solar energy potential in Spain and the spatial varia-
Granada
3.63 37.13 687 1.1 9.6
bility as well.
Almería
2.38 36.85 20 2.6 10.1
Jerez
6.06 36.73 35 0.5 8.8
Malaga
4.48 36.71 61 5.4 10.9
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