Daily Downward Surface Solar Irradiance for Australia from Himawari Satellites

Delivering daily exposure of total downward surface solar irradiance derived from Himawari-8/9 satellite imagery for the Australian continent and surrounding waters. The data is generated using the Qin et al. (2021a) algorithm and is available in both a regular latitude/longitude grid and the original geostationary projection. The product is part of a collection intended for near-real-time processing and future extension to Himawari-10.

Use Cases

• Analyze spatial patterns of total downward surface solar irradiance across the Australian continent using the gridded data.
• Validate solar energy potential models by comparing algorithm-derived irradiance values from Himawari-8/9 imagery with ground measurements.
• Study temporal trends in daily solar exposure for surrounding waters to understand marine energy budgets.
• Assess the Qin et al. (2021a) algorithm's performance by comparing data in the regular latitude/longitude grid against the original Himawari projection.

Strengths

• Derived from Himawari-8/9 geostationary satellite imagery, providing consistent observation over a fixed region.
• Data is available in two spatial formats: a regular latitude/longitude grid and the original geostationary projection (WGS84, sub-satellite longitude = 140.7°E).
• Algorithm development is ongoing for near-real-time processing and future extension to Himawari-10 (2028 - 2045).

Limitations

• Direct download access is not provided; users must contact the authors to access data hosted on the Australian National Computational Infrastructure (NCI).
• The dataset is focused solely on the Australian continent and surrounding waters, limiting geographic applicability.
• Primary file formats are HTML, PNG, and WMS, which may not be ideal for direct quantitative analysis without conversion.

Provenance

Source

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's Data Discovery, via data_gov_au.

Collection Method

Generated from daytime Himawari-8/9 satellite imagery using the Qin et al. (2021a) algorithm.

Freshness

The metadata record was last updated on 2026-03-20.

Geography

Australian continent and surrounding waters.