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Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC

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Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308

Satellite-Based Solar Resource 

Data Sets for India 2002–2012

M. Sengupta,1 R. Perez,2 C. Gueymard,3 

M. Anderberg,1 and P. Gotseff1

1 National Renewable Energy Laboratory

2 State University of New York at Albany

3 Solar Consulting Services

Technical Report

NREL/TP-5D00-61121

February 2014
NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy

Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy

Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC

This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy

Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications.

Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

15013 Denver West Parkway

Golden, CO 80401

303-275-3000 • www.nrel.gov

Satellite-Based Solar Resource 

Data Sets for India 2002–2012

M. Sengupta,1 R. Perez,2 C. Gueymard,3 

M. Anderberg,1

 and P. Gotseff1 

1 National Renewable Energy Laboratory

2 State University of New York at Albany

3 Solar Consulting Services

Prepared under Task No. WFK6.1001 

Technical Report

NREL/TP-5D00-61121

February 2014
NOTICE

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iii

Acknowledgements 

This work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of 

State under the U.S.–India Energy Dialogue’s New Technology and Renewable Energy Working 

Group. The authors would like to acknowledge Michael Mills and Elena Berger of DOE for 

supporting this research. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Bibek Bandyopadhyay and Dr. 

P. Saxena of India’s National Institute of Solar Energy for collaboration and providing groundmeasured data. Additionally, we express appreciation to Aron Habte and Nate Blair of the 

National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Stephen Wilcox of Solar Resource Solutions, LLC, 

for their review of this report.

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iv

Abstract 

A new 10-km hourly solar resource product was created for India. This product was created 

using satellite radiances from the Meteosat series of satellites. The product contains global 

horizontal irradiances (GHI) and direct normal irradiances (DNI) for the period from 2002 to 

2011. An additional solar resource data set covering the period from January 2012 to June 2012 

was created solely for validation because this period overlaps ground measurements that were 

made available from the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s (MNRE’s) National 

Institute for Solar Energy for five stations that are part of MNRE’s solar resource network. These 

measurements were quality checked using the SERI QC software and used to validate the 

satellite product. A comparison of the satellite product to the ground measurements for the five 

stations shows good agreement. This report also presents a comparison of the new version of 

solar resource data to the previous version, which covered the period from 2002 to 2008. The 

comparison of the new product to the previous version shows that annual average DNI modeled 

values are lower by 10% to 15% and the annual average GHI values are lower by 2% to 3%. 

These changes are highest in low-irradiance regions and lowest in high-irradiance areas.

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v 

List of Acronyms

AOD aerosol optical depth

DNI direct normal irradiance

GHI global horizontal irradiance

MBE mean bias error 

MNRE Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

RMSE root mean square error 

SERI Solar Energy Research Institute

QC quality check

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vi

Table of Contents 

List of Figures ......................................................................................................................................... vii

List of Tables........................................................................................................................................... vii

1 Objective ............................................................................................................................................. 1

2 Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 1

2.1 Aerosol Data Sets........................................................................................................................... 1

3 Satellite Product ................................................................................................................................. 2

3.1 Comparison of Products................................................................................................................. 2

4 Validation of Satellite Product........................................................................................................... 2

5 Recommendations for Further Work ................................................................................................ 3

6 References .......................................................................................................................................... 4

7 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................. 5

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vii

List of Figures 

Figure 1. The 700-nm AOD for January 2011 and July 2011. Note the huge variation among 

geographical regions as well as the temporal variation. ................................................................ 5

Figure 2. Annual average DNI and GHI from 2002 to 2011 .................................................................... 6

Figure 3. Comparison of the new data sets to the previous data sets for the GHI and DNI annual 

averages. The solar resource estimates in the new data sets are lower than they were in the 

old data sets for both GHI and DNI. .................................................................................................. 7

Figure 4. Comparisons of ground measurements (Jan. 2012 to June 2012) and satellite hourly data 

for (blue) GHI and (red) DNI for the (clockwise from bottom) Bijapur, Bhogat, Amarsagar, 

Chennai (CWET), and Kadiri stations. The GHI from the satellite product is generally in good 

agreement with the ground data. The DNI data also shows good agreement but has more 

scatter than the GHI. .......................................................................................................................... 8

List of Tables 

Table 1. Stations Where Ground-Based Measurements Are Available for Validation ........................ 9

Table 2. Difference in DNI Between New and Old Data Sets ................................................................. 9

Table 3. Difference in GHI Between New and Old Data Sets................................................................. 9

Table 4. RMSE, MBE, and Correlations (R) Between Satellite-Predicted and Measured DNI............. 9

Table 5. RMSE, MBE, and Correlations (R) Between Satellite-Predicted and Measured GHI........... 10

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1 

1 Objective 

The objective of this project was to create a new satellite-derived hourly solar data set for India 

covering the period of time from January 2002 to June 2012 to supplement and enhance an 

earlier data production effort. The goal was also to reduce the uncertainty of the data sets through 

the use of a newer version of a model that has been developed since the previous data sets were 

created. In particular, this would be accomplished by using a new set of monthly resolved 

aerosol optical depth (AOD) data. To determine the quality of the product, it was essential to 

compare the results to high-quality ground measurement data. Thus, the final objective was to 

procure ground-based measurements, assess the quality of the measurements, and validate the 

satellite-based product with the quality-checked ground measurement data. Because accurate 

solar resource data is critical to assessing project viability and securing project financing, an 

improved data set is expected to reduce barriers to the deployment of solar technologies 

throughout India. 

2 Methodology 

The semi-empirical satellite model developed by Perez et al. (2002, 2004) was used to develop

the solar resource data set. This type of semi-empirical model is fully described in Perez, 

Cebecauer, and Suri (2013). 

For the present application, the inputs to the model consisted of: 

• Hourly visible channel frames from the geostationary satellite covering the Indian 

subcontinent. For the period from 2002 to 2007, the satellite was Meteosat 5. For the 

period from 2007 to 2012, the satellite was Meteosat 7. The satellite data have a ground 

resolution of 0.1 by 0.1 degrees, which is approximately 10 km by10 km for the 

considered region. 

• Ground elevation 

• Climatological precipitable water and ozone (Saha et al. 2010) 

• Monthly AOD. Climatological AOD was used in the earlier product. The present product 

was created using month-specific AOD derived from an ensemble of sources, including 

satellites remote sensing, transport models, and ground measurements (Gueymard and 

Sengupta 2013). 

2.1 Aerosol Data Sets 

An improved gridded database of monthly AOD at 550 nm (AOD550) and Ångström exponents 

over India was produced using point data from ground sites in and around India equipped with 

multi-wavelength sunphotometers as well as gridded data from space measurements or from 

existing aerosol climatologies (Gueymard and Sengupta 2013). Data from 83 sunphotometer 

sites were used here as ground truth to calibrate, optimally combine, and validate monthly 

gridded data from 2000 to 2012. 

To compare the satellite and climatology data (at original resolutions of 1 x 1 degree or 0.5 x 0.5 

degree) to the point-like ground-truth data, scale height corrections were applied to the AOD550 

data to compensate for the effect of local elevation.

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2 

Different optimal combinations of the satellite data were obtained for the three main seasons on 

the Indian subcontinent. Most generally, the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging 

Spectroradiometer) data was found to be closest to ground truth, albeit with some bias, which 

was globally corrected for the whole subcontinent, separately for each season. One main 

difficulty was the numerous data breaks that were found in the satellite-based databases, 

particularly over Rajasthan and during the monsoon season. An optimal combination of alternate 

satellite data and climatologies was applied in such cases.

Additionally, a statistical analysis was undertaken to evaluate the best method of optimally 

correcting the monthly-mean AOD550 so that more-accurate direct normal irradiance results 

could be obtained on a mean monthly basis. This analysis showed that the “most-likely” or mode 

AOD550 might be useful in atmospheres with light aerosol loading. On the other hand, in 

regions with higher aerosol loads, such as India, the use of seasonally corrected monthly mean 

AOD550 using available ground measurements provides the best results. 

The resulting AOD550 and Ångström exponent databases were used to derive the necessary 

input to the satellite model, namely a data set of AOD at 700 nm with a spatial resolution of 0.1 x 

0.1 degree. Figure 1 shows how the AOD700 could vary between winter (represented by January 

2011) and summer (represented by July 2011). Given the wide range of variation between the 

seasons and the high aerosol loading overall, a monthly average may not be fully capable of 

representing the overall variability in solar radiation that actually occurs.

3 Satellite Product 

The satellite-based solar radiation product covers the period from 2002 to 2011. The product is 

an hourly time series at a resolution of approximately 10 km by 10 km. The initial product had 

gaps in which satellite data was not available, thus these missing data points were filled. Missing 

values including the beginning and end of the day were filled using zenith angle–corrected 

interpolation. Missing days were filled using data from the previous day. Longer time periods 

were filled using climatological mean values for years when data corresponding to the missing 

periods were available, though this option was very rarely exercised. The annual average daily 

totals for DNI and GHI were also calculated and are shown in Figure 2. The hourly data sets are 

available from http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/new_data/India/. The maps are available from 

http://www.nrel.gov/international/ra_india.html. 

3.1 Comparison of Products

The satellite data from the previous production were compared to the newly created data sets. It 

was found that the new DNI and GHI estimates are lower than they were in the previous product. 

The differences are shown in Figure 3. Table 2 shows that the DNI resource was mostly reduced 

by 10% to 15%; Table 3 shows that the GHI resource was mostly reduced by 2% to 3%. The 

differences between the two products can be mostly attributed to differences in the AOD used in 

the two products. 

4 Validation of Satellite Product 

Surface-based measurements from pyranometers and pyrheliometers were received from the 

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s (MNRE’s) National Institute for Solar Energy for the 

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3 

five stations shown in Table 1. The overlap between the satellite and ground measurements 

covers the period from January 2012 to June 2012. The ground data were initially available at 

10-minute averages but were converted to hourly averages corresponding to the resolution of the 

satellite data sets. These data sets were then quality checked using the SERI QC software 

(Maxwell, Wilcox, and Rymes 1993). Only data that passed the quality check were used in the 

comparison. 

Validation of the model was undertaken using model validation metrics recommended by the 

International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Programme Task 36. The metrics 

include root mean square error (RMSE) and mean bias error (MBE). 

2

1

1 )I(I N

=RMSE meas,i

N

=i

∑ ipred, − (1) 

Here, N is the number of evaluated data pairs, and Ipredi,i and Imeas,irepresent the modeled and 

measured irradiances, respectively. 

)I(I N=MBE meas,i

N

=i

∑ ipred, − 1

1

 (2) 

Both the GHI and DNI were compared, and the scatter plots for the five stations are shown in 

Figure 4. Summaries of the model performance results for the five sites are presented in Table 4

and Table 5. The MBE of the DNI predicted by the satellite was found to be approximately 60 

W/m2

 for three stations but more than 110 W/m2 for the other two stations. Similarly, the MBE 

for the GHI was found to range from 16 W/m

2

 to 62 W/m2 for the stations that were compared. 

Note that the MNRE has been collecting solar resource data for 51 ground stations 

(http://www.cwet.tn.nic.in/html/srra_stations.html), of which 5 have been used for this study. 

Additional validation for the other stations needs to be conducted to provide a statistically 

accurate estimate of biases. 

5 Recommendations for Further Work 

As apparent in Figure 4, issues still remain in modeling DNI, with the overall average bias below 

100 W/m2. On the other hand, the GHI bias is below 50 W/m2, which points to a 5% to 10% 

error when using the surface measurements as ground truth. This indicates that the quality of the 

newly created solar resource data sets can be considered acceptable given the uncertainties in the 

satellite product, the ground data, and the comparison methodology by which a point 

measurement is compared to an areal average. The signature of the plots suggests that monthly 

AODs might not be of sufficient resolution to fully capture DNI in the considered climate. Figure 

1 shows how variable the 700-nm AOD is both between geographical regions and between 

seasons. Generally, the variability of AOD in a high-AOD environment is high. Therefore, we 

can reasonably conclude that a higher frequency of AOD data (daily AOD) could potentially 

reduce the uncertainty in this climatic environment. Creation of high-resolution AOD data sets 

using chemical transport models is an active area of research.

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4 

In addition, it is important to increase the number of sites for which the comparisons are 

conducted. The current comparison includes five sites; whereas MNRE currently operates and 

collects data from 51 sites, and there are plans to expand this monitoring to more than 100 sites. 

When longer, overlapping time periods of ground and satellite data become available, a longerterm comparison would add value to the satellite product.

6 References

Gueymard, C.; Sengupta, M. (2013). Improved Gridded Aerosol Data for India. NREL/SR5600-58762. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. 

Maxwell, E.; Wilcox, S.; Rymes, M. (1993). Users Manual for SERI QC Software: Assessing the 

Quality of Solar Radiation Data. NREL/TP-463-5608. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy 

Laboratory. 

Perez, R.; Cebecauer, T.; Suri, M. (2013). “Semi-Empirical Satellite Models,” Chapter 2. Kleissl, 

J., ed. Solar Resource Assessment and Forecasting. Waltham, MA: Elsevier. 

Perez, R.; Ineichen, P.; Kmiecik, M.; Moore, K.; George, R.; Renné, D. (2004). “Producing 

Satellite-Derived Irradiances in Complex Arid Terrain.” Solar Energy (77:4); pp. 363–370. 

Perez, R.; Ineichen, P.; Moore, K.; Kmiecik, M.; Chain, C.; George, R.; Vignola, F. (2002). “A 

New Operational Satellite-to-Irradiance Model.” Solar Energy (73:5); pp. 307–317. 

Saha, S., et al. (2010). “The NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis.” Bulletin of the 

American Meteorological Society (91); pp. 1,015–1,057. doi: 10.1175/2010BAMS3001.1.

This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications.
5 

7 Appendix 

Figure 1. The 700-nm AOD for January 2011 and July 2011. Note the huge variation among 

geographical regions as well as the temporal variation.

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6 

Figure 2. Annual average DNI and GHI from 2002 to 2011

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7 

Figure 3. Comparison of the new data sets to the previous data sets for the GHI and DNI annual 

averages. The solar resource estimates in the new data sets are lower than they were in the old 

data sets for both GHI and DNI.

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8 

Figure 4. Comparisons of ground measurements (Jan. 2012 to June 2012) and satellite hourly data 

for (blue) GHI and (red) DNI for the (clockwise from bottom) Bijapur, Bhogat, Amarsagar, Chennai 

(CWET), and Kadiri stations. The GHI from the satellite product is generally in good agreement 

with the ground data. The DNI data also shows good agreement but has more scatter than the 

GHI.

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9 

Table 1. Stations Where Ground-Based Measurements Are Available for Validation

Station Coordinates (Latitude, Longitude) Elevation (m)

Amarsagar 26° 56' 30.89'' 70° 52' 27.28'' 288

Bhogat 22° 1' 43.2'' 69° 15' 40.0'' 14

Bijapur 16° 50' 48.5'' 75° 45' 5.7'' 567

Chennai (CWET) 12° 57' 21.79'' 80° 12' 59.75'' 1

Kadiri 14° 6' 34.5'' 78° 8' 50.1'' 531

Table 2. Difference in DNI Between New and Old Data Sets

Relative Percentage Difference Area (km2)

-121% to -30% 137,899.36

-30% to -25% 62,979.22

-25% to -20% 387,762.97

-20% to -15% 514,087.84

-15% to -10% 1,082,664.91

-10% to -5% 917,289.11

-5% to 0% 287,862.67

0% to 5% 43,789.64

5% to 8% 1,489.88

Table 3. Difference in GHI Between New and Old Data Sets

Relative Percentage Difference Area (km2)

-37% to -6% 117,232.60

-6% to -5% 85,103.88

-5% to -4% 376,601.75

-4% to -3% 489,462.07

-3% to -2% 1,074,811.66

-2% to -1% 934,314.46

-1% to 0% 309,140.77

0% to 1% 44,192.95

1% to 5% 4,965.45

Table 4. RMSE, MBE, and Correlations (R) Between Satellite-Predicted and Measured DNI

Station Hours DNI (RMSE) W/m2 DNI (MBE) W/m2 DNI (R)

Amarsagar 2,076 170 60 0.82

Bhogat 1,866 134 60 0.91

Bijapur 2,194 117 52 0.93

CWET 2,377 191 115 0.85

Kadiri 2,337 174 114 0.91

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Table 5. RMSE, MBE, and Correlations (R) Between Satellite-Predicted and Measured GHI

Station Hours GHI (RMSE) W/m2 GHI (MBE) W/m2 GHI (R)

Amarsagar 2,076 47 16 0.99

Bhogat 1,866 67 42 0.99

Bijapur 2,194 81 52 0.98

CWET 2,377 89 63 0.98

Kadiri 2,337 79 51 0.99

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