WEB SERVICES

Web Services


Radiation	Spectral Radiation	Ground	Astronomy	Atmosphere	Meteorology	Typical years	Validation

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Radiation

HelioClim-3 Prospection	HelioClim-3 Prospection This service delivers: Global, diffuse, direct, reflected irradiation for actual weather conditions and clear-sky irradiation At horizontal, fix-tilted and normal planes Geographical coverage is Europe, Africa, Atlantic Ocean, Middle East Spatial resolution is 3 km at Nadir, and approx. 4-5 km at 45° of latitude Time steps ranging from 1 min to 1 month Data available from Feb. 2004 up to current day-1 you can do up to 5 requests per year and per site For registered users only. Demo version. Please contact us for more information.
HelioClim-3 Monitoring	HelioClim-3 Monitoring This service delivers: Global, diffuse, direct, reflected irradiation for actual weather conditions and clear-sky irradiation At horizontal, fix-tilted and normal planes Geographical coverage is Europe, Africa, Atlantic Ocean, Middle East Spatial resolution is 3 km at Nadir, and approx. 4-5 km at 45° of latitude Time steps ranging from 1 min to 1 month Helioclim-3 Monitoring service is in charge of monitoring the last month. you can do up to 1 request per day and per site. This service proposes two options : "Helioclim-3 Monitoring Realtime" : You can do up to 48 requests per day per site. "Helioclim-3 Monitoring Historical". : You can do up to 1 request per year and per site. For registered users only. Demo version. Please contact us for more information.
HelioClim-3 solar radiation Archives	HelioClim-3 solar radiation time series This service delivers: Global, diffuse, direct, reflected irradiation for actual weather conditions and clear-sky irradiation At horizontal, fix-tilted and normal planes Geographical coverage is Europe, Africa, Atlantic Ocean, Middle East Spatial resolution is 3 km at Nadir, and approx. 4-5 km at 45° of latitude Time steps ranging from 1 min to 1 month Data available from Feb. 2004 up to current day-1 For registered users only. Demo version. Please contact us for more information.
HelioClim-3 AI solar forecast for today and tomorrow	This service provides time series of Artificial Intelligence solar radiation forecast for today and tomorrow. This service is based on a machine learning method called Gradient Boosting.
HelioClim-3 solar real-time and forecast for today	Provides 15 min and hourly HelioClim-3 (version 5) solar radiation time series for the current day. Current day: the service is updated in real time from sunrise with the latest upcoming Meteosat image, to provide HelioClim-3v5 time series. It is completed until the end of the current day with a persistence model.
CAMS radiation	This service provide time series of Global, Direct, and Diffuse Irradiations on horizontal surface, and Direct Irradiation on normal plane (DNI) for the actual weather conditions as well as for clear-sky conditions. The geographical coverage is Europe, Africa, Atlantic Ocean, Middle East. Spatial resolution is 3 km at Nadir, and approx. 4-5 km at 45° of latitude. Time steps ranging from 15 min to 1 month. From Feb. 2004 up to current day-2. A height correction is applied on the radiation value.
CAMS McClear	This service provide time series of Global, Direct, and Diffuse Irradiations on horizontal surface, and Direct Irradiation on normal plane (DNI) under clear sky conditions. Available worldwide. Time step ranging from 1 min to 1 month. From Jan. 2004 up to current day-2. A height correction is applied on the radiation value.
HelioClim-1	This service provides time series of HelioClim-1 monthly, weekly and daily Global Solar Irradiation values over a horizontal plane, as well as monthly irradiation received by a plane normal to sun rays. The geographical coverage corresponds to the Meteosat satellite field of view, i.e. covers Europe, Africa, Atlantic Ocean, Middle East. The spatial resolution is approx. 20 km. The time coverage of data is from 1985 to 2005.
Extraterrestrial Irradiance and Top of Atmosphere	Daily values of Extraterrestrial Irradiance (E0), i.e. received by a plane normal to sun rays and outside the atmosphere, and Top of Atmosphere (ToA) radiation, i.e. received by a horizontal surface and outside the atmosphere. E0, in W/m², depends on the sun-earth distance, and thus on the date. ToA is given in irradiance (W/m²) and irradiation (J/m², Wh/m²).

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Spectral Radiation

Spectral irradiation from HelioClim-3	This service provides time series of UV and PAR
	UV-A (315–400 nm) UV-B (280–315 nm) UV Total (UV-A+UV-B)
	Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) global horizontal Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) at clear-sky Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) at the top of the atmosphere
	The tmporal coverage of data is 2004-02-01 up to current day-2. Time step of the data: 15 min, hourly, daily, monthly. Geographic coverage: Meteosat-11 satellite.
UV from HelioClim-1	This service provides time series of HelioClim-1 daily UV-A, UV-B and Erythemal Daily Irradiation values over a horizontal plane. The geographical coverage corresponds to the Meteosat satellite field of view, i.e. covers Europe, Africa, Atlantic Ocean, Middle East. The spatial resolution is approx. 20 km. The time coverage of data is from 1985 to 2005.
Guidelines for UV exposure	Daily values of UV exposure computed from HelioClim-1 solar radiation database, which implements the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines on protection against UV radiation regarding exposure of the skin.

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Ground (altitude and ground properties)

Altitude of a point	This Web service, provided by MINES ParisTech, returns the altitude value in meters from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) of NASA (USA), from GTOPO30" and from TerrainBase5'.
SRTM in a tile	This service provides tiles of surface elevation from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) of NASA (USA). Please note that it is listed in the catalog www.webservice-energy.org. Click on "more informations" to visit the website of the catalog.

Altitude of a point

This Web service, provided by MINES ParisTech, returns the altitude value in meters from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) of NASA (USA), from GTOPO30" and from TerrainBase5'.

SRTM in a tile

This service provides tiles of surface elevation from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) of NASA (USA). Please note that it is listed in the catalog www.webservice-energy.org. Click on "more informations" to visit the website of the catalog.

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Astronomy

Solar Geometry 2	Solar Geometry 2 is the second generation of library for computing the relative position of the sun and the earth made by the MINES ParisTech. Valid over the time period 1980-2030, the algorithm is 20 times faster than the well-know SPA algorithm (Solar Position Algorithm), with an accuracy order of approx. 0.005°. The code is available both in C langage and in Matlab. More information on the MINES ParisTech OIE research lab website.
Solar Geometry 1	Daily values of solar declination, distance Earth to Sun, difference true and mean solar time, daylength, sunrise and sunset computed with the Solar Geometry 1 library. The code is available in C. More information on the MINES ParisTech OIE research lab website.

Solar Geometry 2

Solar Geometry 2 is the second generation of library for computing the relative position of the sun and the earth made by the MINES ParisTech. Valid over the time period 1980-2030, the algorithm is 20 times faster than the well-know SPA algorithm (Solar Position Algorithm), with an accuracy order of approx. 0.005°. The code is available both in C langage and in Matlab. More information on the MINES ParisTech OIE research lab website.

Solar Geometry 1

Daily values of solar declination, distance Earth to Sun, difference true and mean solar time, daylength, sunrise and sunset computed with the Solar Geometry 1 library. The code is available in C. More information on the MINES ParisTech OIE research lab website.

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Atmosphere

APOLLO Cloud Statistics	APOLLO cloud properties This Web service, granted by ESA and provided by both DLR and TRANSVALOR, provides reports in pdf format with the APOLLO cloud physical parameters statistics on a limited number of sites, as a further help in the characterization of a solar site. The August 2015 description of the product and statistics has been improved and enriched with examples and feedback from our user's trials. It describes also the two products which are available "on demand" from Transvalor.

APOLLO Cloud Statistics

APOLLO cloud properties

This Web service, granted by ESA and provided by both DLR and TRANSVALOR, provides reports in pdf format with the APOLLO cloud physical parameters statistics on a limited number of sites, as a further help in the characterization of a solar site.

The August 2015 description of the product and statistics has been improved and enriched with examples and feedback from our user's trials. It describes also the two products which are available "on demand" from Transvalor.

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Meteorology

Meteo Historical	The "Meteo Historical" service is in charge of retrieving archive meteo data. This service offers: 1 request per year per site Time steps ranging from 1 min to 1 month Data available from "1980-01-01" up to "d-45" Temperature (at 2 meters above the ground), Relative Humidity (at 2 meters), Pressure (at ground level), Wind speed (at 10m) and direction (at 10m), Rainfall (in mm), Snowfall (kg/m²), Snow depth (m), and Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) Those components are retrieved from MERRA-2 model (Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications). Click here to access the demo Portlet.
Meteo Monitoring	The "Meteo Monitoring" service is in charge of retrieving meteo data to help for monitoring. This service offers: 4 requests per day per site Time steps ranging from 1 min to 1 month Data available from "d-45" up to "d+15 Temperature (at 2 meters above the ground), Relative Humidity (at 2 meters), Pressure (at ground level), Wind speed (at 10m) and direction (at 10m), Rainfall (in mm), Snowfall (kg/m²), Snow depth (m), and Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) Those components are retrieved from GFS weather forecast model produced by the National Centers of Environmental Prediction (NCEP). Click here to access the demo portlet.
MERRA	The Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) Web service, available worldwide, delivers time series of Temperature (at 2 m), Relative Humidity (at 2 m), Pressure (at 2 m), Wind speed and direction (at 10 m), Rainfall, Snowfall and Snow depth, with a time step of 1 hour, 1 day and 1 month, and a spatial resolution of approx. 50 km. The data are available since Jan. 1980 and are regularly updated with approx. one month of delay. More information Click here to access the demo portlet.
GFS forecasts	The Global Forecast System Web service, available worldwide, delivers time series of Temperature (at 2 m), Relative Humidity (at 2 m), Pressure (at 2 m), Wind speed and direction (at 10 m), Rainfall, Snowfall, and Snow depth. The web service data availability is from about a month ago up to day+3. The automatic access availabilty is from 2019 up to day+15. Time steps range from 1 min up to 1 month. The spatial resolution is 0,25°. GFS is a weather forecast model produced by the National Centers of Environmental Prediction (NCEP). More information Click here to access the demo portlet.

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Typical Years

Typical Meteorological Year	A Typical Meteorological Year is one synthetic year of solar and meteorological parameter(s) at a hourly time step, which is representative of a weather scenario over your location: • median e.g. Percentile 50 • pessimistic e.g. Percentile 75 • optimistic e.g. Percentile 10. Use TMY directly in PVSyst and SAM tools. TMY is created using numerous years of time series based on the following databases: • HelioClim-3 version 5 for the solar radiation data • MERRA reanalysis from NASA for the other meteorological parameters. ⇒ A calibration of the solar data can be applied using your ground measurements to improve the quality of the TMY.
Frequency of types of sky	This service provides monthly frequencies of three different sky types: sunny, intermediate and cloudy, for a period covering 1996 to 2000, for any site located in Western and Central Europe (source: Satel-Light). Provider: Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat, France. More information
Monthly means of solar irradiance, temperature and relative humidity	This service delivers monthly and yearly means of solar irradiance (downwelling shortwave irradiance), daily minima, maxima and mean values of air temperature at 2 m, and daily minima, maxima and mean of relative humidity at 2 m, averaged over the period 1990-2004 (15 years). The data are available worldwide. This database has been created by data fusion techniques applied to satellite data, meteorological re-analyses from NCEP / NCAR (USA) and orography.

Typical Meteorological Year

A Typical Meteorological Year is one synthetic year of solar and meteorological parameter(s) at a hourly time step, which is representative of a weather scenario over your location:

• median e.g. Percentile 50

• pessimistic e.g. Percentile 75

• optimistic e.g. Percentile 10.

Use TMY directly in PVSyst and SAM tools.

TMY is created using numerous years of time series based on the following databases:

• HelioClim-3 version 5 for the solar radiation data

• MERRA reanalysis from NASA for the other meteorological parameters.

⇒ A calibration of the solar data can be applied using your ground measurements to improve the quality of the TMY.

Frequency of types of sky

This service provides monthly frequencies of three different sky types: sunny, intermediate and cloudy, for a period covering 1996 to 2000, for any site located in Western and Central Europe (source: Satel-Light). Provider: Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat, France. More information

Monthly means of solar irradiance, temperature and relative humidity

This service delivers monthly and yearly means of solar irradiance (downwelling shortwave irradiance), daily minima, maxima and mean values of air temperature at 2 m, and daily minima, maxima and mean of relative humidity at 2 m, averaged over the period 1990-2004 (15 years). The data are available worldwide.

This database has been created by data fusion techniques applied to satellite data, meteorological re-analyses from NCEP / NCAR (USA) and orography.

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Validation

Validate your measurements	This service assesses the quality of measurements of daily global irradiation or daily means of global irradiance acquired by a ground station. Measurements are checked against models resulting in a measure of plausibility.
Irradiation validation report	This service performs a comparison of HelioClim-3 version 4, HelioClim-3 version 5 or CAMS Radiation Service (CRS) estimates of surface solar radiation against qualified ground measurements. It returns a HTML page that contains statistics of comparison and graphs. The time coverage of the CAMS Radiation Service and HelioClim-3 version 5 databases is from 2004-02-01 up to 2 days ago, and up to d-1 for HelioClim-3 version 4. Each station has its own temporal coverage. The period of validation must be selected within this period of data availability. The geographical coverage is the field-of-view of the Meteosat satellites, roughly speaking Europe, Africa, Atlantic Ocean, Middle East (-66° to 66° in both latitudes and longitudes). This service is making use of data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), a European Union programme implemented by ECMWF. The Irradiation Validation Report service has been upgraded during the release of June 2018; it allows you to compare HelioClim-3 and CAMS Radiation data with ground measurements at 54 locations for hourly and daily time steps.

Validate your measurements

This service assesses the quality of measurements of daily global irradiation or daily means of global irradiance acquired by a ground station. Measurements are checked against models resulting in a measure of plausibility.

Irradiation validation report

This service performs a comparison of HelioClim-3 version 4, HelioClim-3 version 5 or CAMS Radiation Service (CRS) estimates of surface solar radiation against qualified ground measurements. It returns a HTML page that contains statistics of comparison and graphs. The time coverage of the CAMS Radiation Service and HelioClim-3 version 5 databases is from 2004-02-01 up to 2 days ago, and up to d-1 for HelioClim-3 version 4. Each station has its own temporal coverage. The period of validation must be selected within this period of data availability. The geographical coverage is the field-of-view of the Meteosat satellites, roughly speaking Europe, Africa, Atlantic Ocean, Middle East (-66° to 66° in both latitudes and longitudes).

This service is making use of data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), a European Union programme implemented by ECMWF.

The Irradiation Validation Report service has been upgraded during the release of June 2018; it allows you to compare HelioClim-3 and CAMS Radiation data with ground measurements at 54 locations for hourly and daily time steps.