Release Notes

- Improved gap filling of meteorological parameters, and introduced minimum and maximum limits for parameters to avoid overshoots and other erroneous data cases

- De-biasing correction for TEMP data from CFSv2 model (applicable for period 2011 onward) was improved.
- Change in temperature values for period 2011 onward is mostly within ±0.5°C. The change in long-term average is even smaller. For details of TEMP post-processing method see https://solargis.com/docs/methodology/meteo-data/#post-processing-of-air-temperature-data

- Improved post-processing of night-time air temperature data from CFSv2 and MERRA-2 model outputs. Updated lapse rate used for spatial downscaling of TEMP data to 1km resolution.
- This change affects Solargis time series: historical, recent, nowcast and forecast.
- All regions are affected but most significant corrections are seen in the coasts of California, Namibia and Chile, western Canada and Yakutia (Russia).

- Terrain shading model has been improved in the calculation of diffuse irradiance. This change affects Solargis time series data: historical, recent, nowcast and forecast.

- Solar radiation calculation scheme has been improved for Americas, Middle East, Asia and Pacific by implementing better management of raw satellite data. The values of GHI, DNI, DIF, GTI and PVOUT parameters are affected by new version of the Solargis model only in rare cases related to a specific segment geometry.
- New parameters have been introduced (available via API and FTP): PV Module Temperature (TMOD) and Precipitation Rate (PREC). TMOD is useful for evaluation of daytime temperature of PV modules, and for calculation of temperature-corrected performance ratio. PREC can be used for improved understanding of soiling and cleaning of PV modules.
- Nowcasting service was extended to Australia, Morocco and Canary Islands
- Geographical coverage of forecasting service based on postprocessing of the IFS outputs (the model operated by ECMWF) was extended to Northeast China, Turkey, Jordan, New Caledonia, Kenya, Morocco and Canary Islands.

Solar radiation data for Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Asia (longitude 95-105E, latitude 30-50N) for year 2017 were reanalysed to improve data consistency. The reanalysis resulted in small changes to GHI and DNI for May-July 2017 and Sep 2017 for Australia and New Zealand. Also, data for parts of China (longitude 95-105E, latitude 30-50N) were updated for July 2017.

Improvement was made in the handling of data from concurrent GOES-EAST satellites (GOES-13 and GOES-14) when data from both satellites are available. The improvement helps to better cope with missing data.

Correction was made to AOD (aerosol optical depth) inputs used in Solargis model for region around longitude 180E

Solargis pre-calculated weather database connected to the online applications iMaps and pvPlanner has been updated.

Data periods used for the calculation of the averaged values provided include now latest complete years (up to 2015) for Europe, Africa and Asia regions. In terms of geographical coverage, iMaps and pvPlanner are now available for whole territories of Russia (up to paralell 60ºN), Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

Latest versions of the algorithms for solar radiation and temperature have been also implemented.