Heliosat (SARAH) East

Screenshot from windprospecting.com showing coverage of the Heliosat (SARAH) East dataset.

Introduction

"Heliosat (SARAH) East" is a satelite based surface solar irradiance dataset produced and delivered by EUMETSAT CM SAF (Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring) - see https://www.cmsaf.eu/. Further documentation on the CM SAF product used can be found here.

Dataset Overview

• Content: Surface radition parameters to be used in solar calculations in windPRO
• Spatial Resolution: The dataset is available on a regular geographical (lat/lon) grid at 0.05x0.05 resolution (around 5 km).
• Temporal Resolution: Hourly values.
• Coverage: The dataset has an extend +- 65 degrees in latitude and -8 to 128 degress in longitude.
  In windPRO, offshore coverage is at a distance of approximately 300 km from any known coastlines.
• Period: 2006-01-01 to 2016-12-31
• Availability: This dataset requires a windPRO version 3.4+

Usage Notes

• The data may contain missing values (-1). If in the vicinity of the domain borders, longer periods (months, years), may be missing.
• EMD holds a subset of this dataset. The original data goes back to 1999.
• The publisher is not updating this dataset forward in time: latest available data is from 2016.

Availability from within windPRO

The data can be accessed and used from windPRO in the following objects:

• Meteo object (data container - online service for obtaining data)
• Solar PV object (calculation tool)

Data Parameters

The windPRO dataset only contains parameters needed for solar calculations. The parameters are listed below.

Table: Overview of the Heliosat (SARAH) East parameters.

Parameter	Unit	Description
time		UTC time stamp
SIS	w/m2	Surface Incoming Shortwave Irradiance
SID	w/m2	Surface Irradiance Direct

All parameters are instantaneous. The two parameters SIS and SID can be used to calculate the diffuse radiation as SIS-SID = diffuse radiation.

Required Modules/Licenses

To access the Heliosat (SARAH) East data from within windPRO - the following licenses/modules are required in your windPRO setup:

• BASIS
• SOLAR

When the license fee is paid, you then have access to the full dataset without further cost. Downloading of data is unrestricted for licenced users with an active service subscription, however, a "fair use" policy applies. Visit EMD online ordering to purchase the necessary licences.

Attribution

If data from this dataset is used within any private or public disseminations, then EMD and its data providers must be acknowledged.

Source: 
Heliosat (SARAH) East. Distribution through EMD and windPRO - EMD International A/S, 2020.
This dataset uses Heliosat (SARAH) data which is being developed by 
EUMETSAT CM SAF (Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring) - https://www.cmsaf.eu/.

External Links

• EUMETSAT CM SAF (Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring) - https://www.cmsaf.eu/