Daily Solar Radiation Records for North America and Pacific Islands
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Description
Daily solar radiation measurements from weather stations in the United States, Canada, Iceland, West Indies, and the Pacific Islands. The dataset includes total radiation, extraterrestrial radiation, sunshine duration, average cloudiness, and percent of possible radiation. Data was collected by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center from 1951 to 1976.
Use Cases
Modeling the relationship between percent of possible sunshine and total daily radiation using recorded cloudiness data.
Analyzing long-term trends in extraterrestrial radiation versus measured total radiation to study atmospheric transmission changes.
Calibrating modern solar radiation models by comparing them with historical pyrheliometer measurements from the 1951-1976 period.
Assessing geographic variation in solar resource potential by comparing radiation and sunshine data across stations in North America and the Pacific Islands.
Strengths
Multi-decade temporal coverage from 1951 to 1976.
Includes multiple derived metrics like percent of possible radiation and sunshine alongside raw measurements.
Data collection followed standardized instruments (pyrheliometers) and an international scale adopted in 1957.
Limitations
Data collection ended in December 1976, making it temporally stale for contemporary climate studies.
The specific number of stations and rows is unknown, limiting assessment of spatial density and sample size.
A documented 2.0% scale shift in 1957 requires careful handling for time-series analysis spanning that date.
Provenance
Source
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), originally archived as DSI-9726 at the National Climatic Data Center.
Collection Method
Measurements taken using thermo-electric hemisphere pyrheliometers (10-Junction and 50-Junction types) installed at weather stations.
Time Range
1951-12-01 to 1976-12-31.
Freshness
Historical archive; period of record ends 1976-12 -31.
Geography
Stations in the United States, Canada, Iceland, West Indies, and the Pacific Islands.
Radiation values recorded before July 1957 use the Smithsonian Scale of 1913; values after use the international pyrheliometer scale of 1956, which provides values 2.0% less.