{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,3]],"date-time":"2025-12-03T03:36:53Z","timestamp":1764733013268,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,20]],"date-time":"2023-02-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1676851200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research","award":["2020B0301030004","42175086","41975031","2020B1212060025"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020B0301030004","42175086","41975031","2020B1212060025"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["2020B0301030004","42175086","41975031","2020B1212060025"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020B0301030004","42175086","41975031","2020B1212060025"]}]},{"name":"Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Climate Change and Natural Disaster Studies","award":["2020B0301030004","42175086","41975031","2020B1212060025"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020B0301030004","42175086","41975031","2020B1212060025"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Clouds can block solar radiation from reaching the surface, so timely and effective cloud cover test and forecasting is critical to the operation and economic efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) plants. Traditional cloud cover algorithms based on meteorological satellite observation require many auxiliary data and computing resources, which are hard to implement or transplant for applications at PV plants. In this study, a portable and fast cloud mask algorithm (FCMA) is developed to provide near real-time (NRT) spatial-temporally matched cloud cover products for PV plants. The geostationary satellite imager data from the Advanced Himawari Imager aboard Himawari-8 and the related operational cloud mask algorithm (OCMA) are employed as benchmarks for comparison and validation. Furthermore, the ground-based manually observed cloud cover data at seven quintessential stations at 08:00 and 14:00 BJT (Beijing Time) in 2017 are employed to verify the accuracy of cloud cover data derived from FCMA and OCMA. The results show a high consistency with the ground-based data, and the average correlation coefficient (R) is close to 0.85. Remarkably, the detection accuracy of FCMA is slightly higher than that of OCMA, demonstrating the feasibility of FCMA for providing NRT cloud cover at PV plants.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs15041141","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,20]],"date-time":"2023-02-20T01:36:37Z","timestamp":1676856997000},"page":"1141","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Developing a near Real-Time Cloud Cover Retrieval Algorithm Using Geostationary Satellite Observations for Photovoltaic Plants"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Pan","family":"Xia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean System, Ministry of Education, and Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Climate Change and Natural Disaster Studies, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University (Guangdong, Zhuhai), Zhuhai 519082, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1519-5069","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Min","family":"Min","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean System, Ministry of Education, and Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Climate Change and Natural Disaster Studies, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University (Guangdong, Zhuhai), Zhuhai 519082, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2455-840X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yu","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Meteorological Information Centre, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"}]},{"given":"Yun","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), Wind Energy Co., Ltd., Beijing 100106, China"}]},{"given":"Lu","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Radiometric Calibration and Validation for Environmental Satellites and Innovation Center for FengYun Meteorological Satellite (FYSIC), National Satellite Meteorological Center (National Center for Space Weather), China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1029\/2020GL091105","article-title":"Surface brightening in eastern and central China since the implementation of the clean air action in 2013: Causes and implications","volume":"48","author":"Shi","year":"2021","journal-title":"Geophys. 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