Retrieval of Incoming Shortwave Radiation Using Satellite Approaches: An Overview

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to review the detail of incoming shortwave radiation retrieval approaches and put forth the required inputs. This review covers the worldwide research study for the estimation of incoming radiation using geostationary platform. Researches on the estimation of ground solar radiation have concentrated more on using the data from geostationary meteorological satellites since the orbit gives an advantage of obtaining multiple acquisitions in a day to account for diurnal and cloud-related variability. It was emphasized by several authors that accuracy may decrease if stations used for interpolation are located in two different climatic areas such as desert, coastal or if they are separated by physiographic structures such as mountainous, rocky area, etc. The attenuation coefficient of cloud could be computed by using Mie theory of scattering. A physical retrieval scheme of mapping irradiation by Meteosat-5 VISSR sensor data over the Indian landmass for the different climatic conditions shows the satellite sensor capability to capture seasonal irradiation.

Keywords: Meteosat-5 VISSR, SWR, cloud attenuation