Effects of temporal averaging on short-term irradiance variability under mixed sky conditions

Lohmann, Gerald M.; Monahan, Adam H.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3131-2018

Articles | Volume 11, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3131-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3131-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 5

Research article

|

31 May 2018

Research article |

| 31 May 2018

Effects of temporal averaging on short-term irradiance variability under mixed sky conditions

Gerald M. Lohmann and Adam H. Monahan

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3131-2018-supplement

Data sets

Oahu solar measurement grid (1-year archive): 1-second solar irradiance Sengupta, M. and Andreas, A. https://doi.org/10.5439/1052451

A 10 Hz irradiance dataset from Oldenburg, Germany Schmidt, T. and Lohmann, G. M. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1216763

Irradiance monitoring network data and wind motion vectors Lorenzo, A. T., Holmgren, W. F., and Cronin, A. D. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.29070

Short summary

Using high-resolution surface irradiance data with original temporal resolutions between 0.01 s and 1 s from six different locations in the Northern Hemisphere, we characterize the changes in representation of temporal variability resulting from time averaging. Our results indicate that a temporal averaging time scale of around 1 s marks a transition in representing single-point irradiance variability, such that longer averages result in substantial underestimates of variability.