Comparison of Different Sources of Meteorological Data for Central Asia and Russia

Plausible meteorological data are essential for sim ulations of solar energy technologies and buildings. Several meteorological databases are ava ilable with data derived from ground measurements, satellite data, or a combination of b oth. These cover different time periods and have different time intervals and spatial resolutions. C onsequently, different values for meteorological data arise from different data sources for the same site. A cross-comparison of data sources for Europe [1] and South Africa [2] has already been ca rried out, however not for Central Asia and Russia. In this paper, the yearly sum of global irr adiation in Central Asia and Russia are compared, derived from available databases (Meteonorm 6.1, NASA SSE rel. 6 and EMP Climate). Two maps are computed to present the yearly average of horiz ontal irradiation as well as the standard deviation, which visualizes the regional difference s between the databases. The differences at a local level have been determined for eight cities. The yearly sum of horizontal irradiation has been calculated for each of these locations. For horizon tal irradiation, a large disagreement between the databases has been found: the difference between th e databases is up to 30 % and the standard deviation of the average value is up to 11 %. Furth ermore, this paper gives an overview about available meteorological databases including specif ications on e.g. covered area, time and spatial