Project Number: 1245-13610-028-02
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Mar 03, 2009
End Date: Dec 14, 2013

Objective:
Produce near-real-time maps of hourly insolation maps at 20km resolution over the continental U.S. for the year 2009-2010 using GOES imagery. This product will be used in realtime execution of the Atmosphere-Land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI) model, developed at the USDA-ARS, to estimate evapotranspiration (ET) and other land surface fluxes.

Approach:
Work with UW scientists to coordinate production and daily transfer of insolation dataset to HRSL. In addition, the UW cooperators will work on improvements to the existing algorithms, including a) incorporation of more reliable estimates of precipitable water from the NCEP GFS model; b) development of a validation/calibration procedure using pyranometer data from the U.S. Climatological Radiation Network; and c) transitioning of this new insolation algorithm to operations (including documentation).