NASA Derived and Validated Climate Data For RETScreen Use: Description and Access Paul Stackhouse NASA Langley Research Center Charles Whitlock, Bill Chandler, Jim Hoell, Dave Westberg, and Taiping Zhang Science Systems Analysis, Inc. Energy Efficiency and RETScreen Version 4

2 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center  NASA Strategic Goal 3: Develop a balanced overall program of science, exploration, and aeronautics …. NASA Sub-goal 3A: Study Earth from space to advance scientific understanding and meet societal needs.  NASA’s Earth science program: develop a scientific understanding of Earth’s system and its response to natural or human-induced changes to improve prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards partner for global modeling and assimilation of observations for science and applications  NASA’s Earth Applied Sciences program: benchmark NASA research results into policy and management decision-support tools support tools vital for the Nation’s environment, economy, safety, and security. NASA Strategic Goals and Applied Sciences

3 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Researching Science Questions  How is the global Earth system changing?  What are the primary forcings of the Earth system?  How does the Earth system respond to natural and human-induced changes?  What are the consequences of changes in the Earth system for human civilization?  How well can we predict future changes to the Earth system? Water Cycle Energy Cycle

4 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center 4 NASA Observing Spacecraft for Earth System Research

5 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Suites of Earth System Science Models Earth System Science Models for Research and Applications

6 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center 6 NASA Applied Science: POWER Project Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource Objective: Improve the Nation’s public and private capability for integrating environmental data into sound management of energy production and energy efficiency systems. Goals: 1.Establish partnerships to facilitate the integration and adaptation of NASA satellite analysis and modeling data into electric power industry Decision Support System’s (DSS) and databases. 2.Target such datasets for Electric Power, Renewable Energy, Energy-Efficient Building Design and Biomass Crop Development Industries 3.Transition operational capabilities to government and/or private sector entities. Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource Objective: Improve the Nation’s public and private capability for integrating environmental data into sound management of energy production and energy efficiency systems. Goals: 1.Establish partnerships to facilitate the integration and adaptation of NASA satellite analysis and modeling data into electric power industry Decision Support System’s (DSS) and databases. 2.Target such datasets for Electric Power, Renewable Energy, Energy-Efficient Building Design and Biomass Crop Development Industries 3.Transition operational capabilities to government and/or private sector entities.

7 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center SSE SSE Web Site > 200 solar and meteorology parameters; averaged from 23 years of data POWER Historical Data Sets Growing over the last 8 years to nearly 30,000 users, 7.5 million hits and 1.4 million data downloads NASA Satellite Measurements, Analysis and Modeling Terra Aqua GMAO SRB Earth Science Research Applied Science Outcome

8 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center NASA Parameters For RETScreen Partner Requested Data from NASA: RETScreen (NRCan/CETC) SWERA (UNEP GRID/ USGS, NREL) MiniCAM (PNNL) etc

9 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center RETScreen’s Use of POWER Climate Data NASA directly delivered data used for Database Surface measurements for cities from RETScreen (red dots) NASA data used when surface measurements unavailable (blue dots) NASA data In Situ data RETScreen Climate Database Data for locations between points are provided through a direct link to NASA SSE.

10 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Retrieving NASA Parameters SSE Release 6.0

11 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center NASA Data Project Improvements  Meteorological Products Improved Atmospheric model and assimilation system Surface parameters computed at doubled the spatial resolution Improved validation relative to US/NOAA National Climate Data Center; observations matched in time and space  Solar Energy products Improved solar energy algorithms including total, direct and diffuse irradiance and related products Improved validation using longer records of more accurate surface measurements  Improved SSE Data Interface SSE retrieved data sets now include enhanced parameter sets SSE Release 6.0 include regional and daily averaged data sets

12 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Overall Accuracy of NASA: Supplied Parameters Parameter NameLatest VersionAltitude Corrected BiasRMSBiasRMS 1. All-sky Total Solar Radiation-1.8% (-0.7%)12.1% (7.7%)na 2. Air Temperature-0.58 o C2.1 o C-0.02 o C1.60 o C 3. Relative Humidity-1.9%9.2%nya 4. Heating Degree-Days17.0 dd73.2 dd0.6 dd60.7 dd 5. Cooling Degree-Days-5.7 dd28.7 dd1.4 dd25.6 dd 6. Earth Temperaturevaries+/- 1-2 Kna 7. Earth Temperature Amplitudevaries+/- 1-2Kna 8. Atmospheric Pressure mb27.43 mb0.50 mb3.43 mb 9. Heating Design Temperaturenya na 10. Cooling Design Temperaturenya na 11. Earth Surface Elevationnya na () = 60 o N - 60 o S; na = not applicable; nya = not yet available Monthly Averaged Assessment Statistics

13 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Example Parameters from NASA: Solar Radiation Times Series

14 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Example Parameters from NASA: All-sky Direct Normal Surface Irradiance

15 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Example Parameters from NASA: Heating Degree-Days (10-meter)

16 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Example Parameters from NASA: Cooling Degree-Days (10-meter)

17 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Example Parameters from NASA: Relative Humidity (10-meter)

18 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Example Parameters from NASA: Earth Skin Temperature

19 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Decade to Decade Changes: Solar Radiation Changes 1 2 3

20 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Decade to Decade Changes: Air Temperature Changes (10-meter ) 1 2 3

21 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Decade to Decade Changes: Cooling Degree Day Changes (10-meter) 1 2 3

22 March 3, 2008 NASA Langley Research Center Summary and Conclusions  NASA’s Earth Science Program is aimed at answering critical questions involving the Earth-Atmosphere system using improved satellite analysis and earth systems science modeling  NASA’s Applied Science Program is aimed at transitioning this information to respond to societal and industrial needs  NASA’s POWER project has demonstrated the potential impact of this information through our continued partnership with RETScreen  The latest release of RETScreen combines it’s advanced capabilities for clean energy projects worldwide with the progress of NASA’s research.  NASA data sets now provide: 23 years of global parameters required by RETScreen More comprehensive validation for parameter estimates Upcoming SSE release to make time series and regional data obtainable