APOLLO Cloud Product Statistics

Kurzfassung

In order to assess the potential electricity production of a solar plant, industry usually uses long term time series of irradiation data. In addition to this, it is possible to obtain from long term satellite images a statistical description of the clouds in the zone of interest. As the clouds are one of the main influencing parameters to the solar irradiation, this additional information can be very valuable to understand location-dependent characteristics when selecting a solar generator's location and to decide on the type of technology most appropriate for the site. The APOLLO (AVHRR Processing scheme Over cLouds Land and Ocean, originally developed for the AVHRR instrument) methodology delivers cloud mask, cloud classification, cloud optical depth, and cloud top temperature as cloud physical parameters for all MSG (Meteosat Second Generation) SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager) pixels with a temporal resolution of 15 minutes during daytime since 1st February 2004. Based on a long term result of APOLLO at a given point, we introduce a new use of this data, the APOLLO Cloud Product Statistics, to determine the typical cloud situations and spatio-temporal patterns at the location of interest. Together with state of the art solar irradiation estimations, these statistical results can be used to determine several important factors for the choice of the best suited solar technology to use. In the main section, the statistics at the pixel location and in a 49x49 pixel zone around the point are described for a one year time series. Examples of the use of these statistical results are presented to better understand the type of sky patterns at the location.