A satellite-based solar energy monitoring system for tasmania, Australia

Visible reflectivity data from the Japanese Meteorological Satellite are used to estimate the daily global radiation in Tasmania, Australia. Data are accessed from the national facsimile network, which provides satellite images for routine meteorological forecasts. This retrieval technique is economical and provides nearly real-time data over the entire state. The main limitation is that logistic problems in the facsimile network do not allow all images to be retrieved. A simple linear relation is presented that uses satellite reflectivity data to estimate daily and monthly global radiation. Mean daily global radiation for the state during August and December 1983 are presented.