A High-Resolution Topographic Correction Method for Clear-Sky Solar Irradiance Derived with a Numerical Weather Prediction Model

Abstract

Rugged terrain is a source of variability in the incoming solar radiation field, but the influence of terrain is still not properly included by most current numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. In this work, a downscaling postprocessing method for NWP-model solar irradiance through terrain effects is presented. It allows one to decrease the estimation bias caused by terrain shading and sky-view reduction, and to account for elevation variability, surface orientation, and surface albedo. The method has been applied to a case study in southern Spain using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mesoscale model with a spatial resolution of 30 arc s, resulting in disaggregated maps of 3 arc s. The validation was based on a radiometric network made of eight stations located in the Natural Park of Sierra Mágina over an area of roughly 30 × 35 km² and 12 carefully selected cloudless days during a year. Three of the stations were equipped with tilted pyranometers. Their inclination and aspect were visually adjusted to the inclination and aspect of the local terrain and then carefully measured. For horizontal surface, the downscaled irradiance has proven to reduce the root-mean-square error of the WRF model by 20% to about 25 W m⁻² in winter and autumn and 60 W m⁻² in spring and summer. For tilted surface, downscaling to different spatial resolutions resulted in the best performance for 9 arc s, with root-mean-square error of 45% (57 W m⁻²) and a mean bias error close to zero.