Enhancing temporal variability of 5-minute satellite-derived solar irradiance data

Abstract

Satellite-derived solar irradiance data are known to underestimate temporal variability compared to point measurements because of their pixel-averaging nature. In this study, we apply an algorithm imposing random noise to enhance the temporal variability of 5-minute satellite-derived solar irradiance data. We show that the resulting product, termed as True Dynamics, has clear-sky exceedance events and the frequency of large ramp events closer to observation. In addition, the increase of temporal resolution of irradiance data significantly reduces the underestimation error of power inverter clipping under high DC:AC capacity ratios conditions.