A Kalman Filter-Based Method for Reconstructing GMS-5 Global Solar Radiation by Introduction of In Situ Data

Solar radiation is an important input for various land-surface energy balance models. Global solar radiation data retrieved from the Japanese Geostationary Meteorological Satellite 5 (GMS-5)/Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer (VISSR) has been widely used in recent years. However, due to the impact of clouds, aerosols, solar elevation angle and bidirectional reflection, spatial or temporal deficiencies often exist in solar radiation datasets that are derived from satellite remote sensing, which can seriously affect the accuracy of application models of land-surface energy balance. The goal of reconstructing radiation data is to simulate the seasonal variation patterns of solar radiation, using various statistical and numerical analysis methods to interpolate the missing observations and optimize the whole time-series dataset. In the current study, a reconstruction method based on data assimilation is proposed. Using a Kalman filter as the assimilation algorithm, the retrieved radiation values are corrected through the continuous introduction of local in-situ global solar radiation (GSR) provided by the China Meteorological Data Sharing Service System (Daily radiation dataset_Version 3) which were collected from 122 radiation data collection stations over China. A complete and optimal set of time-series data is ultimately obtained. This method is applied and verified in China’s northern agricultural areas (humid regions, semi-humid regions and semi-arid regions in a warm temperate zone). The results show that the mean value and standard deviation of the reconstructed solar radiation data series are significantly improved, with OPEN ACCESS Energies 2013, 6 2805 greater consistency with ground-based observations than the series before reconstruction. The method implemented in this study provides a new solution for the time-series reconstruction of surface energy parameters, which can provide more reliable data for scientific research and regional renewable-energy planning.