North American Satelite Climatology of 3d Solar Cloud Effects and its Applicability for Renewable Energy Sources

The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) 5-channel record begins in 1981 and represents three decades of cloud measurements from NOAA's polar-orbiting satellite series. The Pathfinder Atmospheres Extended (PATMOS-x) product employs this record to generate a suite of products including cloud micro- and macro-physical field properties and solar fluxes. In this study we use this product to generate a climatology of solar insolation anomalies over North America due to cloud three-dimensional radiative effects. Specifically, a metric based on measurements of small-scale visible channel variability and sensor-viewing angle identifies areas with significant cloud heterogeneity, an indicator that 3D radiative transfer calculations might differ significantly from those of a traditional plane-parallel model. A stochastic radiative transfer model is employed to simulate the 3D effect on surface and top of the atmosphere solar fluxes, and regional trends in cloud forcing and the implications for solar surface fluxes are explored.