Satel-light
The European Database of Daylight and Solar Radiation
Main content
At the Satel-Light webpage, you have instantaneously access to half-hourly daylight and solar radiation data all over Europe for the 5-year period 1996-2000.
As high frequency values are essential to provide information on the dynamics of daylight and solar radiation, data from the geostationary satellite Meteosat was a way to obtain a continuous spatial coverage of Europe at a high frequency (30 minutes). Thus, a database derived from Meteosat data and made widely available on the web, was developed during the Satel-Light project.
The project was funded by the European Union (Directorate General XII) from 1996 to 1998. Images produced by the Meteosat satellite every half hour, were chosen as the only source of information. The major problem was to produce precise ground level data from the images using various models. The project had two main objects:
- To improve/develop and validate such models.
- To produce a database from two years of satellite images: 1996 and 1997, and make it widely available via an Internet web server.
The Satel-Light project associated 10 research teams with an expertise in acquisition and analysis of satellite images or in solar radiation/daylight measurement and modelling. The web server was developed on the side by a team of four persons with expertise in solar radiation modelling, computer graphics and database to web server connectivity
More information: Satel-Light
Duration: 1996 - 1998
Contact at GFI: Jan Asle Olseth