Preliminary Study on a Cloud and Snow Classification of a Solar Radiation Estimation using the Meteorological Satellite Himawari-8 Data

Abstract

This paper presents a solar radiation estimation method in winter using the meteorological satellite data and cloud and snow classification method. The method is planned to be introduced into the photovoltaic (PV) estimation system developed by the authors in order to reduce the solar radiation estimation error. This paper proposes the cloud and snow detecting method, which uses NDSI (Normalized Difference Snow Index) and BTD (Brightness Temperature Difference) derived from near infrared and infrared wavelength data observed by himawari-8. The proposed method can reduce the solar radiation estimation error by about 36 to 37%.