Made on behalf of the European Commission, DG XII, JOULE II Programme

CONTENTS OF THE DATABASE ON THE CD-ROM

The database comprises several files under different formats. Most of them are related to radiation and meteorological data. Others contain ancillary information, such as the description of measuring stations, or any other information of geographical relevance. The radiation data are either in the form of maps (average values over ten-years for each month), or in the form of long-term time series for several tens of selected measuring stations.

This section describes the contents of the database. The next sections describe the organisation of the database as well as the format of the files for each type of information.

TIME-SERIES OF OBSERVATIONS

Time-series of daily values

These time-series cover the whole period: 1981 - 1990, and have at least 300 values per year (actually 80 % of reliable values per month). About eighty stations are available, which are representative of a typical climate (see further section). Parameters are

• daily sum of horizontal global irradiation (in Whm^-2)
• daily sums of sunshine duration (in 0.1 h)
• daily mean air temperature (in 0.1 Celsius)
• daily minimum air temperature (in 0.1 Celsius)
• daily maximum air temperature (in 0.1 Celsius)
• daily precipitation (in 0.1 mm)

Time-series of hourly and half-hourly values

These time-series cover the whole period: 1981 - 1990. The available parameters are hourly sums of sunshine duration, global and diffuse irradiation on horizontal plane (in Whm^-2), for six German stations:

For the whole period: 1981 - 1990, half-hourly sums of sunshine duration, global, diffuse, and beam irradiation on horizontal plane (in Whm^-2) are available for the station of Uccle, Belgium (WMO number: 06447).

Time-series of monthly values

Monthly means of daily sums of sunshine duration (in 0.1 h) are available for the whole period: 1981 - 1990, for 691 stations.

SYNTHETIC TIME-SERIES

Test Reference Year (TRY), Design Reference Year (DRY) and Biomass Reference Year (BRY) are time-series of meteorological data over a year, synthesised for a given site from several years of data. These reference years are fully described in a further section; they are particularly suitable for the sizing and design of solar systems.

• TRYs are available for the following location
• Saint Petersburg, Russia WMO number: 26063
• Uccle, Belgium WMO number: 06447
• Valentia, Ireland WMO number: 03953
• DRY is available for Copenhagen, Denmark WMO number: 06160
• BRYs are available for the following locations
• Brindisi, Italy (short BRY) WMO number: 16320
• Copenhagen, Denmark (long and short BRYs) WMO number: 06160
• Marseille, France (short BRY) WMO number: 07560
• Passau, Germany (short BRY) WMO number: 10893