Error assessment of grid-based diffuse solar radiation models

ABSTRACT Two grid-based diffuse solar radiation models, ESRI’s Solar Analyst (SA) and Kumar’s model (KM), were assessed using a data-independent approach where each model’s numerical results of clear sky diffuse radiation on V/U-shaped surfaces were compared with analytical results derived using each model’s assumptions. SA and KM consistently underestimate and overestimate, respectively, diffuse radiation at daily, seasonal, and annual scale relative to the analytical results based on each model’s parameterizations. Overall, SA performs better than KM in modeling diffuse radiation at most timescales. While SA and KM have similar error in calculating diffuse radiation on a horizontal surface, SA models sky view factor much better than KM, with mean absolute relative differences of 0.76% and 17.02%, respectively. KM has a large error in sky view factor as it does not consider the shading effect from surrounding terrain. Sky view factor error in SA is small and use of more zenith divisions can further reduce the error. Based on our previous study, model performance on clear sky global solar radiation was also evaluated. Overall, KM performs better than SA in global radiation as KM performs better than SA in modeling direct radiation which is the major component of global radiation.

[1]  Xingong Li,et al.  Snowmelt runoff modelling in an arid mountain watershed, Tarim Basin, China , 2008 .

[2]  J. Dozier,et al.  Rapid Calculation Of Terrain Parameters For Radiation Modeling From Digital Elevation Data , 1989, 12th Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium,.

[3]  Ling Lu,et al.  Modification of solar radiation model over rugged terrain , 1999 .

[4]  K. Jones.  A comparison of algorithms used to compute hill slope as a property of the DEM , 1998 .

[5]  Jing Li,et al.  GIS-based modelling of topography-induced solar radiation variability in complex terrain for data sparse region , 2012, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[6]  T. G. Freeman,et al.  Calculating catchment area with divergent flow based on a regular grid , 1991 .

[7]  Javier G. Corripio,et al.  Vectorial algebra algorithms for calculating terrain parameters from DEMs and solar radiation modelling in mountainous terrain , 2003, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[8]  Ralph Dubayah,et al.  Topographic Solar Radiation Models for GIS , 1995, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[9]  Lalit Kumar,et al.  Modelling Topographic Variation in Solar Radiation in a GIS Environment , 1997, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[10]  Yong Q. Tian,et al.  Estimating solar radiation on slopes of arbitrary aspect , 2001 .

[11]  M. Iqbal.  An introduction to solar radiation , 1983 .

[12]  Xuejun Liu,et al.  Error assessment of grid-based flow routing algorithms used in hydrological models , 2002, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[13]  Richard G. Allen,et al.  Analytical integrated functions for daily solar radiation on slopes , 2006 .

[14]  Shuhua Zhang,et al.  Error assessment of grid-based direct solar radiation models , 2015, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[15]  M. Hoelzle,et al.  A model of potential direct solar radiation for investigating occurrences of mountain permafrost , 1992 .

[16]  Raymond J. Spiteri,et al.  Implications of mountain shading on calculating energy for snowmelt using unstructured triangular meshes , 2012 .

[17]  Javier Herrero,et al.  Topographic effects on solar radiation distribution in mountainous watersheds and their influence on reference evapotranspiration estimates at watershed scale. , 2010 .

[18]  J. Tovar-Pescador,et al.  A comparative analysis of DEM‐based models to estimate the solar radiation in mountainous terrain , 2009, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[19]  David R. Montgomery,et al.  Multi-scale curvature for automated identification of glaciated mountain landscapes☆ , 2014, Geomorphology.