Published June 13, 2021 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Effects of Aerosols and Clouds on the Levels of Surface Solar Radiation and Solar Energy in Cyprus

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens (IAASARS/NOA)
  • 2. Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens (IERSD/NOA)
  • 3. Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics, Cyprus University of Technology
  • 4. nstitute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens (IAASARS/NOA)
  • 5. Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research
  • 6. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics
  • 7. Physicalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos, World Radiation Center

Description

Cyprus plans to drastically increase the share of renewable energy sources from 13.9% in
2020 to 22.9% in 2030. Solar energy can play a key role in the effort to fulfil this goal. The potential for production of solar energy over the island is much higher than most of European territory because of the low latitude of the island and the nearly cloudless summers. In this study, high quality and fine resolution satellite retrievals of aerosols and dust, from the newly developed MIDAS climatology, and information for clouds from CM SAF are used in order to quantify the effects of aerosols, dust, and clouds on the levels of surface solar radiation for 2004–2017 and the corresponding financial loss for different types of installations for the production of solar energy. Surface solar radiation climatology has also been developed based on the above information. Ground-based measurements were also incorporated to study the contribution of different species to the aerosol mixture and the effects of day-to-day variability of aerosols on SSR. Aerosols attenuate 5–10% of the annual global horizontal irradiation and 15–35% of the annual direct normal irradiation, while clouds attenuate 25–30% and 35–50% respectively. Dust is responsible for 30–50% of the overall attenuation by aerosols and is the main regulator of the variability of total aerosol. All-sky annual global horizontal irradiation increased significantly in the period of study by 2%, which was mainly attributed to changes in cloudiness.

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Fountoulakis-et-al-2021-remotesensing-Effects_of_clouds_and_aerosols_on_SSR.pdf

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Additional details

Funding

European Commission
DUST-GLASS - Improving global dust prediction and monitoring through data assimilation of satellite-based dust aerosol optical depth 749461