ENEN 635:

Environmental Modeling

Lab 2 Report:
Modelling of the solar radiation/energy

Submitted by:
Muhammad Naeem
UCID: 30074991
Group #: 13

Dated: March 4, 2020

Q.1: Consider, you have to calculate daily amount of:
i. extra-terrestrial solar radiation, and
ii. incident/incoming solar radiation at the Earth’s surface, over two-year time period.
In this case, you are supposed to collect data at the station/location, which has been assigned to you.
Show the following:
a. Schematic diagram of the entire modeling exercise; and.
b. Results as a function of day of year in one graph.
Solution:
Group Number: 13
Assigned Weather Station: Carrot Creek AGDM
MetData for Weather station:

Calculation formula for solar radiation at the top of atmosphere:

Where,

Calculation Formula for incoming/incident solar radiation at the earth surface:

 a. Schematic diagram of the entire modeling exercise;
Schematic diagram for the modeling process is given below.

Convert latitude of the Calculate the inverse relative distance Assign a Day of Year
station into radians (dr ) between earth and sun, to Every Date (DOY)
(Ø)

Calculate sunset hour angle

Sun (ωs in radians) Calculate solar declination angle
Temperature (δ in radians)
(≈ 5800 K)

Calculate the total spectral emittance

from Sun using Stefan-Boltzmann Law

Calculate Solar Constant (Eo) using Calculate extra-terrestrial incident radiation (Rdaily-ex)
inverse square law

Acquire daily Tmax, Tmin, and Station Calculate incoming/incident solar radiation at the
Observed/Measured Incident Solar radiation earth surface (Rdaily)
at Carrot Creek AGDM station for Year 2016
and 2017

Compare modelled (Rdaily) vs.

Plot a graph between (Rdaily-ex) and
Actual/Observed (Rdaily) using r2 and
(Rdaily) Vs. DOY
RMSE etc.
(Separately for Year 2016 and 2017)
(Separately for Year 2016 and 2017)

For Question-2

Figure-1: Schematic Diagram for the Calculation of Incident Solar Radiations (Rdaily-ex & Rdaily)
 b. Results as a function of day of year in one graph.
Extra-terrestrial solar radiation (Rdaily-ex), and incident/incoming solar radiation (Rdaily) have been
calculated as per above calculation procedure. Calculations are performed for each year (for 2016 &
2017) and results are plotted separately as shown below.

Figure-2: Extra-terrestrial solar radiation (Rdaily-ex), and incident/incoming solar radiation (Rdaily) vs. DOY (2016)

Figure-3: Extra-terrestrial solar radiation (Rdaily-ex), and incident/incoming solar radiation (Rdaily) vs. DOY (2017)
Q.2: Validate your modelled incident solar radiation with measured values obtained from Alberta
Climate Information Service (ACIS) available from:
http://agriculture.alberta.ca/acis/alberta-weather-data-viewer.jsp.
You need to determine
i. the coefficient of determination (r2) and
ii. root mean square error (RMSE).

Solution:
From the data, which was acquired, and then relevant calculations were performed accordingly.
Calculated/Modelled incident solar radiation were plotted on Y-axis vs. station based measured radiation values
on x-axis on 1:1 plot.

Incident Solar Radiation (Modelled Vs. Measured/Observed) for Year-2016:

Based on the data, following are the results.

The coefficient of determination (r2) = 0.8999 (From Graph it is 0.8987)

Root mean square error (RMSE) = 38.45

Figure-4: Incident Solar Radiation (Modelled Vs. Measured/Observed) for Year-2016

Incident Solar Radiation (Modelled Vs. Measured/Observed) for Year-2017:

Based on the data, following are the results.

The coefficient of determination (r2) = 0.8724 (From Graph it is 0.8723)

Root mean square error (RMSE) = 42.12

Figure-5: Incident Solar Radiation (Modelled Vs. Measured/Observed) for Year-2017

Q.3: How much energy is intercepted (received) by the Sun from the Earth, where the radius of the
Earth ≈ 6.4 x 106 m; the distance between Earth and Sun ≈ 1.4 x 1011 m; and the average Earth’s surface
temperature ≈ 287 K (~13 oC).
Solution:
The total spectral emittance/exitance of a blackbody at temperature (T in K) may be calculated using
Stefan-Boltzmann Law:

Where,
So, based on the assumption that Earth is a perfect black body, therefore we can use above equation to
determine the total spectral emittance of the Earth as follow.
Average Earth’s surface temperature ≈ 287 K (~13 oC)
So, putting the values, total spectral emittance
𝑊
𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ = 5.67 ∗ 10−8 𝑥 (287)4
𝑚2 𝐾4
𝑊
𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ = 384.689
𝑚2

The amount of radiation reaching to the top of Sun can be calculated using inverse square law (written
for Earth irradiance) as follow:

𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ 2 𝑊
𝐸𝑜 (𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑛) = 𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ [ ]
𝑑 𝑚2

Where
“d” is average distance between sun and earth (≈1.4*1011 m), hence
2
𝑊 6.4 ∗ 106
𝐸𝑜 (𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑛) = 384.689 [ ]
𝑚2 1.4 ∗ 10 11

𝑊
𝐸𝑜 (𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑛) = 8.04 ∗ 10−7 this is negligible amount of energy received by Sun from Earth.
𝑚2

Q.4: You would like to install solar panel on top of your Calgary home. Which aspect (i.e., the direction
of slope) would be your ideal choice for harvesting the maximum solar radiation? Justify your choice.
Solution:
Based on literature, following are the most important factors (or parameters) for harvesting solar
radiation from using Solar panel.
a. Latitude
b. Day of Year (DOY)
c. Exposed Surface Area / Panel Direction of installation
d. Possible daylight hours
Out of these mentioned factors, roof exposed surface area where the panel is to be installed is an
important factor. The direction of panels should always be towards the direction of maximum daily
exposure to sun light having its surface perpendicular to radiation. In this installation angle solar panel
will harvest the maximum amount of solar radiation.
In northern hemisphere, south and south-west facing surfaces are able to harvest the greatest amount
of incident solar radiation. Furthermore, as per understanding, other parameters like Altitude & DOY
etc. can’t be controlled or changed, However, during the design phase, roof exposed/facing side can be
changed as per requirement and it should face either south and/or south-west if we want to harvest
maximum solar radiation.
Q.5: Consider that you plan to install 2 x 2 m2 photovoltaic panel with an efficiency of 12%. Then,
calculate the daily dynamics of harvested solar energy and plot as a function of day of year.
Solution:
Weather station data for observed/measured incident solar radiation is used for the estimation of the
total daily harvested solar energy based on Solar Panel area (i.e. 2 x 2 m2) and solar panel efficiency. The
results are plotted (Daily Harvested Solar Energy vs. DOY) for each year under consideration
Daily dynamics of Harvested Solar Energy for Year-2016
The results for daily dynamics of Harvested Solar Energy for year 2016 is given below:

Figure-6: Daily dynamics of harvested solar energy as a function of DOY (For Year-2016)
Annual Harvested Solar energy from the panel is tabulated below:

Total Solar Energy available per unit area 48,241 W/m2

Solar Panel Area 4.00 m2

Total Solar Energy available 192,962 W

Efficiency of Solar Panel 12 %

Total Harvested Energy from panel 23,155 W

556 KWh
Daily dynamics of Harvested Solar Energy for Year-2017
The results for daily dynamics of Harvested Solar Energy for year 2017 is given below:

Figure-7: Daily dynamics of harvested solar energy as a function of DOY (For Year-2017)
Annual Harvested Solar energy from the panel is tabulated below:

Total Solar Energy available per unit area 48,109 W/m2

Solar Panel Area 4.00 m2

Total Solar Energy available 192,437 W
Efficiency of Solar Panel 12 %
Total Harvested Energy from panel 23,092 W

554 KWh
Q.6: Is there any time lag between incident solar radiation and temperature (as it is primarily derived
by solar radiation) at both diurnal and annual timescale? If yes, what could be the possible reasons?
Solution:
Yes-there is a time lag between the incident solar radiation and the temperature at both diurnal as well
as on annual level. Earth being also being considered as the blackbody, radiates back the incoming solar
radiation, however, due to the changing in day and night as well as seasons, the earth initially
accumulates incoming solar heat from the sun and its temperature rises and accordingly less energy
radiates back. As the earth warms, the amount of energy radiating back out to space increases.
Eventually, the energy out matches the incoming solar energy and the planet is in equilibrium again.
If we consider the Diurnal timescale, at noon, the sun is overhead and radiation travels the lowest
amount of atmosphere thus have highest strength however, peak daily temperature usually occurs in
the afternoon. Similarly, on annul basis, this time lag is seasonal dependent. During summer season,
particularly June, earth highest amount of radiation, however, temperatures are different on Land and
water surfaces as water takes much longer to heat up than land. Therefore, temperatures on land are
very much dependent on nearby water body temperature. Thus, weather stations record maximum
temperature during months of July , August, when outgoing radiation from Earth reaches its peak based
on the large heat capacity of the oceans and to a lesser extent land masses. This added radiation energy
allows atmospheric temperature to continue to rise despite energy from the sun is on decreasing trend.

References
Best Direction to Face Solar Panels. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 03, 2020, from Haleakala Solar and Roofing:
https://www.haleakalasolarroofing.com/best-direction-to-face-solar-panels/

Cook, J. (2009, July 8). Climate Time Lag. Retrieved 03 03, 2020, from Skeptical Science:
https://skepticalscience.com/Climate-time-lag.html

Hansen, J. (2005, September 27). Efficacy of climate forcings. Journal of Geophysical Research. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD005776