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Title: Regional scale evaluation of a meteosat second generation solar radiation product for evapotranspiration modeling

Author
item CRISTOBAL, J - University Of Alaska
item Anderson, Martha

Submitted to: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/14/2012
Publication Date: 1/17/2013
Citation: Cristobal, J., Anderson, M.C. 2013. Regional scale evaluation of a meteosat second generation solar radiation product for evapotranspiration modeling. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.

Interpretive Summary: Solar radiation plays a key role in the Earth’s energy balance and is used as an essential input data in radiation-based evapotranspiration (ET) models. Solar radiation can be readily mapped over large areas at sub-hourly timescales using images collected by geostationary satellites. This paper evaluates a solar radiation product generated using the European Meteosat Second Generation Satellite (MSG) at 15-minute intervals and 3-km spatial resolution over Europe and Africa. Satellite-derived estimates are compared with ground-based observations collected with a network of insolation sensors in northeastern Spain. The comparison showed that the satellite product has reasonable accuracy over a range in station elevations and cloud conditions. The accuracy is sufficient to derive high-quality evapotranspiration estimates required for operational water management applications.

Technical Abstract: Solar radiation plays a key role in the Earth’s energy balance and is used as an essential input data in radiation-based evapotranspiration (ET) models. Accurate gridded solar radiation data at high spatial and temporal resolution are needed to retrieve ET over large domains. In this work we present an evaluation at hourly, daily and monthly timesteps and regional scale (Catalonia, NE Iberian Peninsula) of a satellite-based solar radiation product developed by the Land Surface Analysis Satellite Application Facility (LSA SAF) using data from the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI). Product performance and accuracy were evaluated for datasets segmented into two terrain classes (flat and hilly areas) and two atmospheric conditions (clear and cloudy sky), as well as for the full dataset as a whole. Evaluation against measurements made with ground-based pyranometers yielded good results in flat areas with an averaged model RMSE of 65 Wm-2 (19%), 1.6 MJm-2 (9.7%) and 0.9 MJm-2 (5.6%), for hourly, daily and monthly-averaged solar radiation and including clear and cloudy sky conditions and snow or ice cover. Hilly areas yielded intermediate results with an averaged model RMSE of 89 Wm-2 (27%), 2.3 MJm-2 (14.5%) and 1.4 MJm-2 (9.3%), for hourly, daily and monthly time steps, suggesting the need for further improvements (e.g., terrain corrections) are required for retrieving localized variability in solar radiation in these areas. In general, the LSA SAF solar radiation product appears to have sufficient accuracy to serve as useful and operative input to evaporative flux retrieval models.