National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB)
The National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) is a serially complete collection of meteorological and solar irradiance data sets for the United States and a growing list of international locations for 1998-2023. The NSRDB is updated annually and provides foundational information to support U.S. Department of Energy programs, research, industry and the general public.
The NSRDB provides time-series data at 30-minute resolution of resource averaged over surface cells of 0.038 degrees in both latitude and longitude, or nominally 4 km in size. Additionally time series data at 5 minutes for the US and 10 minutes for North, Central and South America at 2 km resolution are produced from the next generation of GOES satellites and made available from 2019. The solar radiation values represent the resource available to solar energy systems. The data was created using cloud properties which are generated using the AVHRR Pathfinder Atmospheres-Extended (PATMOS-x) algorithms developed by the University of Wisconsin. Fast all-sky radiation model for solar applications (FARMS) in conjunction with the cloud properties, and aerosol optical depth (AOD) and precipitable water vapor (PWV) from ancillary source are used to estimate solar irradiance (GHI, DNI, and DHI). The Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) is computed for clear skies using the REST2 model. For cloud scenes identified by the cloud mask, FARMS is used to compute GHI and FARMS DNI is used to compute the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI). The PATMOS-X model uses radiance images in visible and infrared channels from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series of geostationary weather satellites. Ancillary variables needed to run REST2 and FARMS (e.g., aerosol optical depth, precipitable water vapor, and albedo) are derived from NASA's Modern Era-Retrospective Analysis (MERRA-2) dataset. Temperature and wind speed data are also derived from MERRA-2 and provided for use in NREL's System Advisor Model (SAM) to compute PV generation.
Citation Formats
TY - DATA
AB - The National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) is a serially complete collection of meteorological and solar irradiance data sets for the United States and a growing list of international locations for 1998-2023. The NSRDB is updated annually and provides foundational information to support U.S. Department of Energy programs, research, industry and the general public.
The NSRDB provides time-series data at 30-minute resolution of resource averaged over surface cells of 0.038 degrees in both latitude and longitude, or nominally 4 km in size. Additionally time series data at 5 minutes for the US and 10 minutes for North, Central and South America at 2 km resolution are produced from the next generation of GOES satellites and made available from 2019. The solar radiation values represent the resource available to solar energy systems. The data was created using cloud properties which are generated using the AVHRR Pathfinder Atmospheres-Extended (PATMOS-x) algorithms developed by the University of Wisconsin. Fast all-sky radiation model for solar applications (FARMS) in conjunction with the cloud properties, and aerosol optical depth (AOD) and precipitable water vapor (PWV) from ancillary source are used to estimate solar irradiance (GHI, DNI, and DHI). The Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) is computed for clear skies using the REST2 model. For cloud scenes identified by the cloud mask, FARMS is used to compute GHI and FARMS DNI is used to compute the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI). The PATMOS-X model uses radiance images in visible and infrared channels from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series of geostationary weather satellites. Ancillary variables needed to run REST2 and FARMS (e.g., aerosol optical depth, precipitable water vapor, and albedo) are derived from NASA's Modern Era-Retrospective Analysis (MERRA-2) dataset. Temperature and wind speed data are also derived from MERRA-2 and provided for use in NREL's System Advisor Model (SAM) to compute PV generation.
AU - Sengupta, Manajit
A2 - Habte, Aron
A3 - Xie, Yu
A4 - Lopez, Anthony
A5 - Buster, Grant
DB - Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI)
DP - Open EI | National Renewable Energy Laboratory
DO - 10.25984/1810289
KW - energy
KW - solar
KW - irradiance
KW - data
KW - meteorological
KW - meteorology
KW - processed data
KW - solar radiation
KW - GHI
KW - DNI
KW - DHI
KW - cloud type
KW - surface albedo
KW - solar resource
KW - available resource
KW - zenith angle
KW - wind
KW - aerosol
KW - cloud
KW - albedo
KW - zenith
KW - temperature
KW - pressure
KW - weather
KW - direct beam component
LA - English
DA - 2018/09/28
PY - 2018
PB - National Renewable Energy Laboratory
T1 - National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB)
UR - https://doi.org/10.25984/1810289
ER -
Sengupta, Manajit, et al. National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB). National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 28 September, 2018, Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). https://doi.org/10.25984/1810289.
Sengupta, M., Habte, A., Xie, Y., Lopez, A., & Buster, G. (2018). National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB). [Data set]. Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). National Renewable Energy Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.25984/1810289
Sengupta, Manajit, Aron Habte, Yu Xie, Anthony Lopez, and Grant Buster. National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB). National Renewable Energy Laboratory, September, 28, 2018. Distributed by Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). https://doi.org/10.25984/1810289
@misc{OEDI_Dataset_1,
title = {National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB)},
author = {Sengupta, Manajit and Habte, Aron and Xie, Yu and Lopez, Anthony and Buster, Grant},
abstractNote = {The National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) is a serially complete collection of meteorological and solar irradiance data sets for the United States and a growing list of international locations for 1998-2023. The NSRDB is updated annually and provides foundational information to support U.S. Department of Energy programs, research, industry and the general public.
The NSRDB provides time-series data at 30-minute resolution of resource averaged over surface cells of 0.038 degrees in both latitude and longitude, or nominally 4 km in size. Additionally time series data at 5 minutes for the US and 10 minutes for North, Central and South America at 2 km resolution are produced from the next generation of GOES satellites and made available from 2019. The solar radiation values represent the resource available to solar energy systems. The data was created using cloud properties which are generated using the AVHRR Pathfinder Atmospheres-Extended (PATMOS-x) algorithms developed by the University of Wisconsin. Fast all-sky radiation model for solar applications (FARMS) in conjunction with the cloud properties, and aerosol optical depth (AOD) and precipitable water vapor (PWV) from ancillary source are used to estimate solar irradiance (GHI, DNI, and DHI). The Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) is computed for clear skies using the REST2 model. For cloud scenes identified by the cloud mask, FARMS is used to compute GHI and FARMS DNI is used to compute the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI). The PATMOS-X model uses radiance images in visible and infrared channels from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series of geostationary weather satellites. Ancillary variables needed to run REST2 and FARMS (e.g., aerosol optical depth, precipitable water vapor, and albedo) are derived from NASA's Modern Era-Retrospective Analysis (MERRA-2) dataset. Temperature and wind speed data are also derived from MERRA-2 and provided for use in NREL's System Advisor Model (SAM) to compute PV generation.},
url = {https://data.openei.org/submissions/1},
year = {2018},
howpublished = {Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI), National Renewable Energy Laboratory, https://doi.org/10.25984/1810289},
note = {Accessed: 2025-05-28},
doi = {10.25984/1810289}
}
https://dx.doi.org/10.25984/1810289
Details
Data from Sep 28, 2018
Last updated Sep 5, 2024
Submitted Sep 22, 2020
Organization
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Contact
Manajit Sengupta
Authors
Research Areas
Keywords
energy, solar, irradiance, data, meteorological, meteorology, processed data, solar radiation, GHI, DNI, DHI, cloud type, surface albedo, solar resource, available resource, zenith angle, wind, aerosol, cloud, albedo, zenith, temperature, pressure, weather, direct beam componentDOE Project Details
Project Name NSRDB
Project Number 34218
