A technique for mapping hourly global solar near infrared radiation from satellite data

This paper presents a technique for mapping hourly global solar near infrared radiation (SNIR) from 0.695um to 2.80 um using MTSAT-1R satellite data. A simple radiative balance model is used to relate an atmospheric reflectance as seen by the satellite to an equivalent reflectance obtained from pyranometer measurements in the SNIR band. The tuned and calibrated atmospheric reflectance from satellite data is then used to estimate surface SNIR irradiance and the results are shown as SNIR maps. Statistics for monthly average of hourly SNIR irradiance are presented for Thailand using five years (2009-2013) of satellite data.