Quality Control of Solar Radiation Data within Sonda Network in Brazil: Preliminary Results
Abstract
The assessment of renewable energy resources requires supplementary site specific ground data to validate the solar irradiation databases derived from satellite information by using numerical modeling of radiative processes in atmosphere. The quality control is a key aspect of any data acquisition program in order to guarantee reliability and allow comparison analysis between different observational datasets. The Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE) has implemented the Brazilian Environmental Data Organization System (SONDA) network to provide solarimetric and meteorological data to support the Brazilian energy sector regarding to the information demand on solar and wind energy resources. Currently, a better understanding on solar resource variability (seasonal and interannual) is becoming increasingly required since the growth of the solar energy share in Brazilian Electricity Matrix is very likely for the next years. This work presents a detailed description of the SONDA network and all procedures adopted to ensure the data quality before deliver for free public access.
Keywords
Solar radiation database, Remote sensing, Quality control, Sonda network