Estimate diffuse and direct component from global irradiance











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I am looking to separate the diffuse and direct component of global irradiance and found the Erbs model to do this in pvlib (see pvlib.irradiance.erbs) however, I am getting very strange results. I would expect the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) to be lower than the Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI); or am I missing something? Values of GHI are not above 800 W m^2 for these days.



enter image description here





EDIT: As per Cliff H advice, I have limited the solar zenith to less than 85 arc degrees; the results have improved however, there are large spikes in DNI values that do not appear very reasonable, e.g. start of 07-16.



enter image description here










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    I am looking to separate the diffuse and direct component of global irradiance and found the Erbs model to do this in pvlib (see pvlib.irradiance.erbs) however, I am getting very strange results. I would expect the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) to be lower than the Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI); or am I missing something? Values of GHI are not above 800 W m^2 for these days.



    enter image description here





    EDIT: As per Cliff H advice, I have limited the solar zenith to less than 85 arc degrees; the results have improved however, there are large spikes in DNI values that do not appear very reasonable, e.g. start of 07-16.



    enter image description here










    share|improve this question


























      up vote
      0
      down vote

      favorite









      up vote
      0
      down vote

      favorite











      I am looking to separate the diffuse and direct component of global irradiance and found the Erbs model to do this in pvlib (see pvlib.irradiance.erbs) however, I am getting very strange results. I would expect the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) to be lower than the Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI); or am I missing something? Values of GHI are not above 800 W m^2 for these days.



      enter image description here





      EDIT: As per Cliff H advice, I have limited the solar zenith to less than 85 arc degrees; the results have improved however, there are large spikes in DNI values that do not appear very reasonable, e.g. start of 07-16.



      enter image description here










      share|improve this question















      I am looking to separate the diffuse and direct component of global irradiance and found the Erbs model to do this in pvlib (see pvlib.irradiance.erbs) however, I am getting very strange results. I would expect the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) to be lower than the Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI); or am I missing something? Values of GHI are not above 800 W m^2 for these days.



      enter image description here





      EDIT: As per Cliff H advice, I have limited the solar zenith to less than 85 arc degrees; the results have improved however, there are large spikes in DNI values that do not appear very reasonable, e.g. start of 07-16.



      enter image description here







      pvlib solar






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      edited Nov 19 at 12:36

























      asked Nov 12 at 20:23









      Kievit

      374




      374
























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          DNI > GHI is common at low solar elevation. GHI decreases much faster than DNI as solar elevation decreases. For example, think of a clear day with the sun right near the horizon. DNI will large because it's measured on a plane normal to the sun vector, but GHI will be near zero.



          The values of DNI that are much greater than 1000 W/m2 are likely at very high zenith, since the Erbs model basically divides by cos(zenith). In practice, I limit using decomposition models like Erbs to zenith<85 degrees, to avoid the non-physical results.






          share|improve this answer























          • Thanks for this. I have limited the zenith to < 85 arc degrees. This has definitely improved the results however, I still get funny artefacts.
            – Kievit
            Nov 12 at 22:53












          • The results appear credible to me. The Erbs model is estimating the diffuse component of GHI, and returns DNI by a closure calculation, i.e., DNI = (GHI - DHI) / cos(Z). The empirical equation that obtains DHI from GHI is a fit through a fairly broad scatter of data, so it should be regarded as one of many possible values of DHI that correspond to the observed GHI value.
            – Cliff H
            Nov 14 at 16:13










          • Thanks. I did not consider that DNI assumes the surface perpendicular to the rays. As this is slightly different, I have asked a new question here on how to estimate DNI and DHI for a horizontal surface from GHI.
            – Kievit
            Nov 19 at 12:31











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          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes








          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes









          active

          oldest

          votes






          active

          oldest

          votes








          up vote
          2
          down vote



          accepted










          DNI > GHI is common at low solar elevation. GHI decreases much faster than DNI as solar elevation decreases. For example, think of a clear day with the sun right near the horizon. DNI will large because it's measured on a plane normal to the sun vector, but GHI will be near zero.



          The values of DNI that are much greater than 1000 W/m2 are likely at very high zenith, since the Erbs model basically divides by cos(zenith). In practice, I limit using decomposition models like Erbs to zenith<85 degrees, to avoid the non-physical results.






          share|improve this answer























          • Thanks for this. I have limited the zenith to < 85 arc degrees. This has definitely improved the results however, I still get funny artefacts.
            – Kievit
            Nov 12 at 22:53












          • The results appear credible to me. The Erbs model is estimating the diffuse component of GHI, and returns DNI by a closure calculation, i.e., DNI = (GHI - DHI) / cos(Z). The empirical equation that obtains DHI from GHI is a fit through a fairly broad scatter of data, so it should be regarded as one of many possible values of DHI that correspond to the observed GHI value.
            – Cliff H
            Nov 14 at 16:13










          • Thanks. I did not consider that DNI assumes the surface perpendicular to the rays. As this is slightly different, I have asked a new question here on how to estimate DNI and DHI for a horizontal surface from GHI.
            – Kievit
            Nov 19 at 12:31















          up vote
          2
          down vote



          accepted










          DNI > GHI is common at low solar elevation. GHI decreases much faster than DNI as solar elevation decreases. For example, think of a clear day with the sun right near the horizon. DNI will large because it's measured on a plane normal to the sun vector, but GHI will be near zero.



          The values of DNI that are much greater than 1000 W/m2 are likely at very high zenith, since the Erbs model basically divides by cos(zenith). In practice, I limit using decomposition models like Erbs to zenith<85 degrees, to avoid the non-physical results.






          share|improve this answer























          • Thanks for this. I have limited the zenith to < 85 arc degrees. This has definitely improved the results however, I still get funny artefacts.
            – Kievit
            Nov 12 at 22:53












          • The results appear credible to me. The Erbs model is estimating the diffuse component of GHI, and returns DNI by a closure calculation, i.e., DNI = (GHI - DHI) / cos(Z). The empirical equation that obtains DHI from GHI is a fit through a fairly broad scatter of data, so it should be regarded as one of many possible values of DHI that correspond to the observed GHI value.
            – Cliff H
            Nov 14 at 16:13










          • Thanks. I did not consider that DNI assumes the surface perpendicular to the rays. As this is slightly different, I have asked a new question here on how to estimate DNI and DHI for a horizontal surface from GHI.
            – Kievit
            Nov 19 at 12:31













          up vote
          2
          down vote



          accepted







          up vote
          2
          down vote



          accepted






          DNI > GHI is common at low solar elevation. GHI decreases much faster than DNI as solar elevation decreases. For example, think of a clear day with the sun right near the horizon. DNI will large because it's measured on a plane normal to the sun vector, but GHI will be near zero.



          The values of DNI that are much greater than 1000 W/m2 are likely at very high zenith, since the Erbs model basically divides by cos(zenith). In practice, I limit using decomposition models like Erbs to zenith<85 degrees, to avoid the non-physical results.






          share|improve this answer














          DNI > GHI is common at low solar elevation. GHI decreases much faster than DNI as solar elevation decreases. For example, think of a clear day with the sun right near the horizon. DNI will large because it's measured on a plane normal to the sun vector, but GHI will be near zero.



          The values of DNI that are much greater than 1000 W/m2 are likely at very high zenith, since the Erbs model basically divides by cos(zenith). In practice, I limit using decomposition models like Erbs to zenith<85 degrees, to avoid the non-physical results.







          share|improve this answer














          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer








          edited Nov 19 at 16:02









          Kievit

          374




          374










          answered Nov 12 at 21:44









          Cliff H

          711




          711












          • Thanks for this. I have limited the zenith to < 85 arc degrees. This has definitely improved the results however, I still get funny artefacts.
            – Kievit
            Nov 12 at 22:53












          • The results appear credible to me. The Erbs model is estimating the diffuse component of GHI, and returns DNI by a closure calculation, i.e., DNI = (GHI - DHI) / cos(Z). The empirical equation that obtains DHI from GHI is a fit through a fairly broad scatter of data, so it should be regarded as one of many possible values of DHI that correspond to the observed GHI value.
            – Cliff H
            Nov 14 at 16:13










          • Thanks. I did not consider that DNI assumes the surface perpendicular to the rays. As this is slightly different, I have asked a new question here on how to estimate DNI and DHI for a horizontal surface from GHI.
            – Kievit
            Nov 19 at 12:31


















          • Thanks for this. I have limited the zenith to < 85 arc degrees. This has definitely improved the results however, I still get funny artefacts.
            – Kievit
            Nov 12 at 22:53












          • The results appear credible to me. The Erbs model is estimating the diffuse component of GHI, and returns DNI by a closure calculation, i.e., DNI = (GHI - DHI) / cos(Z). The empirical equation that obtains DHI from GHI is a fit through a fairly broad scatter of data, so it should be regarded as one of many possible values of DHI that correspond to the observed GHI value.
            – Cliff H
            Nov 14 at 16:13










          • Thanks. I did not consider that DNI assumes the surface perpendicular to the rays. As this is slightly different, I have asked a new question here on how to estimate DNI and DHI for a horizontal surface from GHI.
            – Kievit
            Nov 19 at 12:31
















          Thanks for this. I have limited the zenith to < 85 arc degrees. This has definitely improved the results however, I still get funny artefacts.
          – Kievit
          Nov 12 at 22:53






          Thanks for this. I have limited the zenith to < 85 arc degrees. This has definitely improved the results however, I still get funny artefacts.
          – Kievit
          Nov 12 at 22:53














          The results appear credible to me. The Erbs model is estimating the diffuse component of GHI, and returns DNI by a closure calculation, i.e., DNI = (GHI - DHI) / cos(Z). The empirical equation that obtains DHI from GHI is a fit through a fairly broad scatter of data, so it should be regarded as one of many possible values of DHI that correspond to the observed GHI value.
          – Cliff H
          Nov 14 at 16:13




          The results appear credible to me. The Erbs model is estimating the diffuse component of GHI, and returns DNI by a closure calculation, i.e., DNI = (GHI - DHI) / cos(Z). The empirical equation that obtains DHI from GHI is a fit through a fairly broad scatter of data, so it should be regarded as one of many possible values of DHI that correspond to the observed GHI value.
          – Cliff H
          Nov 14 at 16:13












          Thanks. I did not consider that DNI assumes the surface perpendicular to the rays. As this is slightly different, I have asked a new question here on how to estimate DNI and DHI for a horizontal surface from GHI.
          – Kievit
          Nov 19 at 12:31




          Thanks. I did not consider that DNI assumes the surface perpendicular to the rays. As this is slightly different, I have asked a new question here on how to estimate DNI and DHI for a horizontal surface from GHI.
          – Kievit
          Nov 19 at 12:31


















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